


Dear Fellow Traveler

by thedarknovak



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Space Travel, Astronaut Derek Hale, Astronaut Scott McCall, Astronaut Stiles Stilinski, Derek Hale is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Major Character Death Scott, Read The Author Notes, Stiles Stilinski Is Bad at Feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-09-14 20:23:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9201005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedarknovak/pseuds/thedarknovak
Summary: Space Travel AU: Its the year 2018. The United States has had a spontaneous boom in space travel technology. Their projections of putting a man on mars is changed to 2018, and the technology is so advanced that they plan on having the crew stay on mars for a month to explore before returning with their findings. Nasa didn’t expect to gain 3 astronauts from the same town, Beacon Hills, but best friends Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski and loner Derek Hale make the cut and all end up on mission MarsIFAM2018. The mission starts off as planned, but swirls into a mix of action, tragedy, romance, and fluff that makes the travel more than Stiles could have bargained for.





	1. Gotta' Blast

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO! This is either my 3rd or 4th fic lengthy fic I am writing. I say 3rd or 4th because I am still deciding which I want to write first. I already have the first couple chapters of each written and the whole stories for each mapped out, but I myself am undecided which I want to focus on first. I am so excited to write both of them. I would love input on which you would like to read first. Ultimately the final decision is mine to make, but It would be nice to see which you all might want to see written first. I totally plan on finishing them both. Just one will be finished after the other. They are both about the same length. 
> 
> Both stories have Major Character Death. I will let you know that right away. I'll let you know right off the bat that it isn't Stiles or Derek. In both stories the MCD is Scott, but in Dear Fellow Traveler we see more of Scott than in Vise Versa (my other fic) In Vise Versa Scott essentially takes the place of Laura. 
> 
> Werewolves in space! In this fic Derek is a werewolf. There is a lot of interesting stuff I have planned later in the story for this factor. For example, what reactions will werewolves have to being on a different planet...with two moons. 
> 
>  
> 
> Updating Schedule: I'll try to go for a couple times a week, but I have school and work so it would only be once a week. This applies to the story I choose to do first. If I have extra time I could either do extra chapters for one story or if I need a break from the universe of one story I may switch and write a chapter for the other as a break from writing the other story. But whichever is chosen to be written first will be my main focus.

 

 

 

**GOTTA' BLAST**

 

 

 _This was it_. Stiles thought to himself. He was going to fulfill his dream. Stiles was buckled in his seat while manning his station and awaiting the countdown soon to come. Stiles was apart of a NASA crew that was about to embark on a journey to mars. MarsIFAM2018 was roughly 3 and a half year mission to go and become the first humans on mars and inhabit the planet for a month, taking various samples and exploring the red planet. Since Joe Biden took office after the disaster that was the cut short term that was Trumps presidency, space technology took off, various advancements were made and a mission to mars was changed from 30 years in the future, to 2018. Stiles had always wanted to be an astronaut since he was little, and now at 24, he was going to accomplish it. Stiles was a prodigy when it came to knowing guidance systems, and he was the part of the crew assigned to make sure it was maintained and fixed if it obtained any damage. Stiles came to NASA with his best friend, Scott McCall. The two both had a dream to be astronauts ever since they were little. That is what drew them to each other and helped establish the great friendship they shared.

 

NASA had been surprised not one, not two, but 3 people from the Beacon Hills had gotten into the program, and they all were assigned on the mission. They were young, but they all had talents that were needed on the mission. Stiles’ vast knowledge of guidance systems and various tech repair knowledge, Scott’s Tech Repair and specialties in physical damage repair, and Derek’s various safety protocols, 1 of 2 copilots status, and knowledge of a lot of the ship's inner workings, as well as some knowledge of the plants they were bringing with them. Stiles didn’t know Derek, he just knew he was from Beacon Hills. Stiles and Scott were both 24, Scott being a little older than Stiles, and from the file Stiles read about Derek he was 27. There were 15 crew members in total on a huge spacecraft with various modules the main module at the bottom was meant to be what the crew would stay in. It had capabilities of attaching to Mars' surface and then detaching when it was time to fly home.

 

That is how the 3 Beacon Hills natives found themselves strapped into the Mars Inhabitor, the ship ready to carry them through space. It was fast and capable of getting them to mars within 1 and a half years. Within that time the crew would have to make sure the space ship ran smoothly and avoid threats. They would also take care of various plants brought on board. They had ways of keeping the plants alive, and in return the plants supplies an amount of renewable oxygen. Derek was the one with the most knowledge of horticulture, Stiles being a close second, so they no doubt would be the ones spending the most time tending to the plants, making sure their oxygen source stayed healthy.

 

The countdown had now begun and they were ready to embark on the journey of a lifetime. The event was televised and Melissa, Sheriff Stilinski, and Talia were at the launch site to witness their children make history. Most of Beacon Hills was tuned in to see their rising stars go to mars. If Talia was honest she didn’t know about letting Derek travel through space, but it was what he always seemed to want to do, or be involved in NASA somehow. She was proud of him, and he would be making history, being the first werewolf in space. Not that the world would know about it, but the Hale name was popular among the supernatural community, so some people would know the Hale pack was going places. She just hoped Lycanthropy was enough to keep her son safe from the vast dangers of space travel. Talia snapped out of it when she heard the loudspeakers boom out numbers. _10.........9.....8.....7....6...5..._ Stiles’ heart was pumping. This was it. This was the moment he was waiting for. He was going to make his dad proud. He was going to honor his promise to his mother. He promised her he was going to go to space one day and now he was doing it. _4...3....2..._ Stiles gripped the seat and waited to feel the boom of the thrusters of the ship, the G’s of force on his body as it was propelled by the craft into outer space. _1._ The spacecraft’s thrusters roared to life and the craft started to creep up and out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

Once the Mars Inhabitor had broken through the atmosphere the thrusters switched to the various thrusters on the modules of the ship. The ship was designed this way to travel faster. The huge amount of thrusters in the back was for takeoff, to break through atmospheres, but the other thrusters were for speed once they got into space. The time spent once the ship made it into space was spent making sure the ship avoided any space depree, and stayed on course. When that was all taken care of the crew members could finally relax for a while and let the ship propel them for a while. Stiles went to make sure everything was okay with the plants at this time. He wasn’t surprised to see Derek already there. The two hadn’t formally met yet, just were frequently in the same room during briefings. “Uhh Hi” Stiles says, floating into the room due to the lack of gravity space offered. There was gravity in the main ‘lounging’ module though, there was an artificial gravity system made so the crew could relax, eat, and not have to worry about floating or things floating away from them. There was also gravity in the bunk rooms directly off of the lounging room, all connected to the same system.  “Hi” Derek said, checking on one of the various species of plants aboard. “We haven’t met officially. Names Stiles Stilinski. Stiles isn’t my real name, but....trust me. Just call me Stiles” Stiles says offering a hand to Derek, the other hand holding himself from floating up more than he should have been.

 

Derek takes the hand. He didn’t officially know Stiles, but they grew up in the same town and he recognized the boy's scent. In fact he oddly liked the boy's scent. It was sweet like honey, but more earthy. Derek wanted to make sure they hit it off and became friends, he wanted to make sure that happened with everyone on board, there was a problem though. Derek was fairly inexperienced when it came to making friends, so he could only hope that Stiles would start off on the right foot and not take anything Derek says as rude or something. Derek thought about the numerous people that either thought he was super attractive or some type of serial killer on the account of his eyebrows. “Looks like we're gonna be HortiBuddies for this trip. I don’t know about you, but I would rather not spend tons of time tending to these plants in silence so we should get to know each other. Especially since we're going to be together for 3 and a half years” Stiles said, letting out a small chuckle.

 

Derek nodded and handled Stiles a catalogue of the plants so he could review it. Derek wasn’t all too sure how to start idle conversation so he went for the one think they had in common. “So you’re from Beacon? I’ve seen you around a couple times?” Derek said moving on to the next species of plants. “Born and raised” Stiles said now on the other side of the room looking at some of the plants over there, watering them. “Oh yeah. The sheriff and your mom right?” Derek says, but immediately regrets it. He remembered hearing about Claudia’s death, but he wasn’t involved enough in Stiles’ life yet to remember it offhand right away. Derek knew he was bad at socializing with others, but he thought damn, bringing up a person's dead mother on their first meeting was a new kind of fucked up. “My mom is dead. It’s fine though dude, you probably didn’t know. You know she was a partial reason why I got into all of this? She encouraged me to follow my dreams and all of that good stuff. I wanted to honor her and get into Nasa like I said all those years ago. Now look at me, zooming through space faster than the speed of sound” Stiles said, looking like he wasn’t at all offended by Derek bringing up his mother. “Yeah? That sounds honorable. You’ll have to tell me about her sometime. You know since we're gonna be here for a while”  Derek says. Stiles seemed to lighten up after that, becoming more easy to talk to. In fact the entire time Derek had said more words than he would usually use with a normal person he had just met, which was weird for him. He brushed it off as Stiles was just easy to get along with, but he questioned that statement after a while because the slender man could surely talk a lot, Derek had thought.

 

The spend a couple hours in the plants wing talking about very mundane things. Stiles’ idea of getting to know one another consisted of very basic likes and interests. Stiles argued that they were the foundation of a friendship, but Derek didn’t really know how knowing Stiles’ favorite color was red would help him know more about how the boy ticked, but he guessed it did help him if he ever had to get the boy something as a gift. It turns out the two shared a lot of common interests, besides the whole desire for space travel. The two found out they were both comic geeks, which surprised Stiles. He didn’t expect this big broody looking man to like comics, but he did. Turns out they both admitting to liking comics from both major companies. They both had favorites from DC and Marvel. They shared interests in the types of books they read, which mostly consisted of fantasy, but Derek sported the occasional non fiction story that he liked. Their music tastes differed slightly, but generally were similar. Derek preferred indie bands like the black keys, while Stiles preferred pop, but they both admitting to liking songs from generally any genre.

 

When Derek was finally pulled away from the Horticulture room, it was to relieve the second copilot of his duty for a while. Stiles forgot that Derek was even the copilot. If he was honest the other people of a higher position than him intimidated him a little, but Derek, Derek may have been a little intimidating at first, but Stiles thought he was great to get along with. When Stiles had finished his rounds for the day, checking on the systems to make sure there weren’t any issues with them, he headed over to the lounging room to get some food. Stiles was relieved when he got in the room and actually had some gravity. He was tired of floating around all day. When he got to the lounging area he immediately spotted Scott who was eating alone in the far corner of the room. He was looking out the small port window, seeing the stars pass by. “Hey there buddy! How was your day?” Stiles said to his best friend. “Long. Lots of checks to make. Everything seems to be holding well so far though. Can you believe it? We actually did it dude” Scott said, motioning for Stiles to take the seat across from him. “Mine was long as well. But I got to officially meet the other crew member from Beacon. He is cool. A little quiet, and his eyebrows look intimidating at first, but he’s nice” Stiles said proceeding to prepare some food for himself.

 

They shared a conversation for a while before they decided it was getting late. They were off duty at the moment so they had best used their time for rest, and they did. Stiles and Scott shared a room, and Derek’s was a couple doors down to the right. They guessed the people wanted to keep the Beacon Hills Trio in the same area. As they were walking to their bunk they noticed Derek heading towards his. “Hey Derek!” Stiles said rather loudly. Derek walked over and seemed to stay silent, mostly because he probably hadn’t met Scott. Yet. It was true, Derek was kind of intimidated by the protective scent Scott was exhibiting. He knew that humans generally weren’t aware of the scents they leave on others, but Scott had left a scent on Stiles that clearly showed that he was close with him. It wasn’t at all a sexual scent, but if Scott was a werewolf, he would have a pack claim on Stiles because their scents were so mixed. At the same time Derek could scent himself still on Stiles from earlier. It helped calm the situation because he knew Scott wasn’t mean, he had seen him around town as well and he was just as nice if not nicer than the sarcastic seeming Stiles. His scent was more intimidating though, it wasn’t as nice smelling as Stiles. He couldn’t put his finger on why Stiles smelt so good yet either. “Hey” was all Derek said, acknowledging both of them. “Hey! Nice to meet you! I’m Scott. Nice to meet the other member of the Beacon Hills Trio” Scott said, offering his hand out to shake, smile wide on his face. Stiles thought it was typical Scott, friendly as ever and easy to get along with people.

  
That seemed to calm Derek down more, seeing how harmless Scott was. Derek took the hand and shakes it firmly.”Beacon Hills what?” Derek asked curiously. “You, me, and Scotty here. That’s what the other crew members have taken to calling us. So are you hitting the hay Derek?” Stiles asked friendly. It was a stupid question Derek thought, it was one of the first opportunities to rest, of course he was going to sleep, but he figured the Stilinski boy just wanted to make conversation, which made him happy that he was starting to make friends with him so easy. “Oh. Yeah, long day. You?” Derek said and Stiles nodded, Scott as well. “Yeah. babysitting plants for a good amount of the day and guidance checks will drain a lot out of a person. Well goodnight Derek” Stiles said, Scott also telling Derek goodnight. “Night Scott. Stiles” Derek said before walking into his bunk. When Stiles and Scott got into their room where they thought it was private, or so they thought. Scott finally spoke up. “So what was that?” Scott asked curiously. “What was what Scott?” Stiles asked rather confused. “Dude you totally didn’t stop looking at Derek until he left for his room” Scott said rather accusingly. “What are you.... _Stiles’ cheeks redden_. I don't...Fine. I think he’s attractive. Sue me. I know it hasn’t been much time since we’ve been in space, but...Just shush Scott. I can find someone attractive. Nothing will come out of it, he’s probably straight. And it wouldn’t be very professional to try and indulge dating a coworker while on the job zooming through space. I would much rather explore being friends with the man. Dude I am not one of those people that goes with the love at first sight thing. I have to get to know the person first. Knowing Derek for one day doesn’t warrant that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t find him attractive. I am human Scott. Don’t tell me if there was some attractive women on here you wouldn’t be all over them. Unless you think Marty and Hannah are attractive, dude they’re like in their 40’s” Stiles says gaining a roll of the eyes from Scott. “Gross dude. I am totally gunning for this girl back home. He works in one of the offices at NASA. Allison. When we get back, I hope she's still single because god she's the one I can tell” Scott says, puppy dog eyes wide with want. They said their goodnights and went to bed. Derek could hear it all, not that they would know. Derek knew he was attractive. It kind of made him feel good that Stiles wasn’t just lusting after him though or just interested in a relationship with him based off his looks. Stiles wanted to be _friends_ with him. Then if it developed into something more then so be it, Derek would be okay with that, but for now he wanted to make sure their friendship was what budded first. He wanted to gain a true friend before rushing into a relationship. Especially one in the middle of space. He fell asleep hoping that Stiles and him would become really good friends. He didn’t have many friends back home besides his family. He had Boyd, but he more often than not seemed preoccupied with Erica. _Friends. I can deal with being friends._  


	2. Cosmology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek and Stiles play games to get to know each other. Derek reveals some things about his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't really think of much for this chapter so it's kinda short. There will be some action in the next chapter. Not just hanging around plants XD I promise.
> 
> Soon I will have a playlist to go with this because I get bored and like to make accessory things for my fics.

 

 

 

**COSMOLOGY**

 

 

Stiles woke up for another day aboard this ship he was calling home for the next couple of years. It was 2 months since they departed Earth. Stiles was on top of the world and antsy to arrive at Mars, but he still had a long time to go. He knew that a lot of the trip would be boring and he was likely to get antsy, but he couldn’t help but get giddy at the thought of being one of the first people to land on the red planet. Stiles found himself making his way to the room of plants. They had been growing rather well. Stiles thought about the joke Derek had made to him. He had mentioned how Stiles’ talking was one of the sole reasons the plants were growing beyond their normal sizes, because of the amount of Carbon Dioxide he was exhibiting by talking. In the past two months Stiles and Derek had started to become friends, they started off slow but eventually got to know each other a little better each time they were stationed in the room with the plants. It was essential to keep the plants alive and help with the oxygen output, so they made sure to put extra care into it. 

 

Stiles spent his time with Derek frequently playing word games while they worked. So when Derek walked into the room they said their greetings and Stiles casually began a game where they would ask each other random questions to get to know each other better. Stiles found it was a good way to become close with a person. To a normal person, it might seem like pointless information to know about a person, but it really could give some insight into to another person. Each time they played the game some of the questions would get more deep. They would be on the ship for a while, so they would have to become more creative with their questions they would ask. “So Der, if you could only read 3 books for the rest of your life, what would they be?” Stiles asked, using the nickname he had given Derek about 3 weeks into their journey. “Good question. That is a hard one since I have so many books that I like. I would have to say. The Great Gatsby, 1984, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Now that you mention it I wish I’d brought one of those with me.” Derek says, tending to the current plant he was attempting to water. 

Stiles beamed at Derek. He liked all of those books as well. They might not have been his favorite, but he had copies of all of them, he even had 1984 on this very ship with him. He knew it would be a good way to get Derek to strengthen their friendship. “Well big brother has intel that I may have a copy of 1984 in my bunk if you wanna borrow it. Okay your turn.” Stiles says, writing something in the log of papers they were required to keep track of. Derek laughed at the reference to the book. “Well, I’d like that a lot. I have some books in my bunk if you wanna browse to see if there is anything you’d like to read. Could also swap ipods for a while if you want. Which leads me to my next question. If all the music on earth except 6 songs were suddenly destroyed, what songs would you live with listening to for the rest of your life” Derek let out, floating across the room to grab some fertilizer. The crew had been given an opportunity to take ipods with them and were given solar powered chargers as to not eat up the energy from the ship. They could rest the chargers toward the sun and it would charge the battery of the charger, and they could use that to charge their ipods. “Well. Thats a hard question. I am quite the connoisseur of music.  I listening to just about anything, but I would have to say Underdog by Imagine Dragons, Meet Me in the Woods by Lord Huron, Stargazer by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Unison by Björk, Strangelove by Depeche Mode, and I Bring the Beat by RuPaul. I have a ton of other songs I would wanna keep but those are the ones I have taken a great favoritism towards recently. What about you. I am curious to know what Derek Hale listens to in his free time” Stiles says, turning his gaze to meet Derek’s. 

 

Derek thinks about it for a minute. He isn’t opposed to listening to a bit of everything, but he finds himself listening to a lot of indie music more often than not. The black keys being one of his favorite bands. Derek tells Stiles the name of 6 songs, mostly indie ones and continues working. “Cool I know some of those. So we haven’t really talked about people back home. Tell me about your family.” Stiles says, looking at Derek. If Derek was with anyone else it might be a little weird sharing family information with them, but Stiles made sure that this room was a space of friendship and trust. Stiles was really considerate when Derek explained how awkward he was with making friends and interacting with people. Derek felt comfortable now with talking to Stiles and he figured it would be okay to start sharing more personal things. 

 

Derek spoke up when he saw Stiles looking at him eagerly awaiting his response. Derek didn’t really know what to say. He settled on the basics. “Uh...Well my older sister Laura works at an insurance agency. She got a degree and went for that job because... _ Derek pauses. Of course he would somehow screw up his train of thought and find a way to bring up...that, Derek thought to himself.  _ She got that job because she wanted to help people, make sure they weren’t screwed over like we almost were. I don’t think you remember, but it was on the news back in Beacon but this crazy woman almost burned our house down, with my family with it. Anyways, Mom works at an accounting firm. Dad works at the local garage. My little sister Cora is still in college at BHCC” Derek says, trying not to seem awkward around the part about his family. 

 

With that Stiles wanted to kick himself. He knew Derek was awkward at conversation and they had never brought up each others families, but he never expected Derek to have brought up something like that. Stiles knew that Derek must have gone through some shit to end up so socially awkward, but he never guessed someone had attempted arson on his family. Stiles had his own issues with his mom dying that he hadn’t worked over, like his anxiety and panic attacks. He probably should have mentioned that to NASA, but he sneaked his way through the evaluation somehow. Derek’s communication skills were the exact opposite of Stiles’, at least at the moment. Stiles noticed that he had gotten him to open up more since the initial meeting, but they had a while to go before Derek might initiate a conversation on his own. “I’m sorry” Stiles said obvious guilt on his face. It was one of Stiles’ problems he wanted to work on. He constantly blamed himself when things went wrong. He knew it all connected back to his mother’s death. When she had gotten sick, she would blame him for everything. He knew it wasn’t really her talking, it was the illness, but he couldn’t help but let those words get ingrained into his mind. 

 

Derek didn’t understand why Stiles was starting to get worked up. His heartbeat was increasing almost like he was the one getting sad or hurt. He figured the man just felt bad about having caused Derek to bring up such a touchy subject. Derek for the most part was past the danger he put his family in, but Paige and Kate still took toles on his social skills. Derek knew he was afraid to get close to anyone. He was scared he was letting himself get close to Stiles, but at the same time he wanted to get closer to him. Derek knew Stiles was harmless and only ever meant well, even when he would speak pointless blabber or use sarcasm. “It’s okay Stiles. I’m over it. For the most part. I know you...most people can tell I have a hard time talking to people. Most people take it for me being an angry person...but it’s not that. I just have a difficult time, after some events in my life, like the fire, I have had a hard time trusting people. I feel I can trust you Stiles, but it’s still hard for me. I get frustrated sometimes when I can’t just bring myself to talk casually without this paranoia in my head telling me to be on alert. I’m working through it, it’s just hard you know? It’s even hard now telling you these very words, but I want to have some friends again,  _ maybe more _ , so are you up for being patient with me?” Derek spoke trying not to become nervous. 

 

The room went from awkward to tender when Stiles floated across the room and placed a hand on Derek’s shoulder. Derek almost flinched at the warmth of Stiles’ hand on his shoulder. It wasn’t like  _ her _ . It kinda reminded him of Paige in a way, but more masculine. “No problem, big guy. I know it’s only been two months but besides Scott, you’re one of my best friends here. One of my best friends back home as well. Not many people believed in me and Scott becoming astronauts. Shows them huh? Team Beacon Hills 3 am I right?” Stiles says enthusiastically, holding up a hand for Derek to high five. Surprisingly Derek high fives him. 

 

After about half of the day the two decided to take a lunch break after making a pitstop to their bunks to trade some books. Stiles was glad someone else on this ship liked to read. Scott had brought his 4ds with him, and used the solar powered charger to keep it from dying. The two swapped a couple books and went to the lunch room. The rest of the crew seemed to be doing their jobs, even Scott. That is until Scott walked into the room moments later, giving Stiles the ‘working the moves aye?’ look. The look was kind of an accusing smirk which Stiles returned with a deadpan. He would have flipped Scott off, but Derek was sitting with him. “Hey guys!” Scott says enthusiastically. Happy to see his best friend and acquaintance. Mind if I join? I am starving” Scott said, going to the small kitchenette to get some food. The two nodded and Scott made his food and joined them. Derek and Stiles had already prepared their food and were eating casually. “So Derek. How’s the copilots life treating you?” Scott said. 

 

Derek noted the puppy dog face in front of him.  _ This was Stiles’ best friend _ . Derek thought it made sense. Stiles’ sarcastic joking nature balanced out with Scott’s seemingly compassionate nice nature. “Not too bad.” Derek said trying to cast a small smile at the two sitting across from him. Derek felt bad about eavesdropping on the two sometimes when they would be in their bunks alone talking, but he couldn’t help it. He was in space bored out of his mind and he needed something to do besides read the same books over and over in his down time. Scott seemed to tease Stiles a lot about him liking Derek, which Derek didn’t understand why Scott would even keep bringing it up after Stiles had told him time and time again over the past 2 months that they were just friends. Derek thought maybe Scott knew something Derek didn’t. He brushed it off though, because he wanted to focus on friendships only at the moment. He was just getting to the point where he could trust someone with a friendship, he didn’t want to complicate things with throwing romantic emotions into the mix, especially since he didn’t know how to cope with them. His past two relationships hadn’t exactly worked out. 

 

To Derek’s surprise he didn’t have much of a hard time talking to Scott. The 3 of them held idle conversation about various things. Scott talked about some video game he played on his 4ds. Stiles talked about how he was making Danny check in with his father back home to make sure he wasn’t constantly eating fast food. Derek didn’t exactly think of himself as friends with Scott yet, but it was a start for their first time sitting down and really talking. Derek didn’t know if he could sit there and do it without Stiles there as a buffer, but he could get there eventually. 

 

Stiles liked this, his two friends talking. He thought was a good start for Derek and Scott to become friends. Throughout the conversation Stiles noted Derek’s demeanor. He wanted to make sure that the man wasn’t too uncomfortable with talking to Scott. He knew Scott was harmless with Derek though, he thought that Scott would have probably been a better first friend than himself. Stiles recalled all the times he blabbers and says some sarcastic things that can make him seem like a jerk sometimes. Like the time he brought up Derek’s eyebrows looking like those of a serial killer. Derek didn’t mind though. Scott seemed to make jokes about Stiles having feelings for Derek, which maybe he might feel something. He would be lying if he said he felt nothing, but their friendship was too fresh for him to want to try something more. He had Derek in mind, he knew the man was hard enough to be friends with, silence piercing their air when he wouldn’t know how to answer something Stiles said. He could only imagine Derek trying to convey emotional feelings. Stiles was the opposite way though. He had to hold himself pack from saying how he felt, he remembers times back home where he would just blurt out his feelings. Like in high school where he had blatantly asked Danny if he thought he was attractive to gay guys. He would be lying if he said he didn’t have feelings for Danny back then, but now they were just friends and Stiles was okay with that. Stiles knew he was the kind of person who caught feelings too fast, and he knew he had been rejected too much to try and rush into things. He could really compromise his budding friendship if he told Derek anything now. So Stiles kept his mouth shut, for his sake and Dereks. 

  
They all finished their food and after about a half hour of conversation they decided to return to their work. The 3 had to split up and go to their respective jobs, Derek taking his posted job as copilot, Stiles went to to some checks on the computer for the guidance and do some calculations to make sure everything was on track, and Scott returned to doing maintenance checks of some of the equipment. Stiles couldn’t help but beam while he was doing his work. His progress with Derek was going well, and he could tell he would have another close friend on his hands. He started out nearest window to see the stars pass by.  _ Guess were becoming Space Amigos _ . Stiles joked to himself before returning to clicking keys on the keyboard of the computer. 


	3. Neutron Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A problem arises with the guidance system. Scott and Stiles have to attend to it. How will things go with a rather rude Captain at their necks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yasss Chapter 3. Next chapter is more comedic and fun. So I'm kinda doing what I said I wasn't gonna do for now and writing a chapter for both of my fics through the week. Starting school soon so expect delays. Also I have included an imagine. All rights are to fox and teen wolf. It's a photo I quickly edited from the movie the Martian. This is kind of how I envision their suits looking. In fact the ship they use is similar to the one I envision but with a lot more of the module things that spin around the ship. In fact I got a lot of inspiration from the martian. But the story doesn't really go how the martian went. Just some of the technology is similar.

{How I envision the characters looking in their space suits}

_All rights for images to 21st century fox and Teen Wolf_  

 

* * *

 

**NEUTRON STAR**

 

 

 

> **Guidance Measure Core D24G5 System**  
> 
> #A239560 ONLINE  Return Value: 39239490
> 
> #A894520 ONLINE  Return Value: 35209393
> 
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>                                                                                    Error Protocol: Meter #A157358 Damaged. Replace Immediately
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>                                                                                    Restart Check? Yes/No?
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>                                                                                    User: StarStiles1     

...............

              

* * *

 

 

2 and a half months into the trip Stiles found himself checking all of the guidance systems properties and he found a problem. One of the meters that measured some of the velocity calculations wasn’t working properly. In fact it was majorly wrong. If they kept on this course without fixing it they would end up in the completely wrong place. So Stiles immediately went to the cockpit. He saw Derek and the captain of the ship, Frank, sitting in silence, Derek looking to be reading some instruments. “What is it? Problem with you and Derek’s precious plants? That's hardly a reason to barge into the cockpit Stilinski.” Frank asked in a rather annoyed tone when he turned to see Stiles. Stiles paused for a moment, kind of off put by the rudeness of their ‘captain’. “Actually it's a guidance problem. One of the meters on the outside of the ship is damaged. It's causing one of the velocity values to come up NULL. If we don't take car---” Stiles is cut off. “Have Derek take care of it. Since the 3 beacon folks seem to stick together you can stick together on the outside. I'm cutting the engines and slowing us down hurry up. I don't wanna explain to NASA why we're not on track time wise. Derek go fetch Emanuel” Frank said, clicking various buttons to cut the engine. Emanuel was the other designated copilot on the ship. Stiles looked at Derek who was looking at Frank. He noted the anger on Derek’s face. Stiles wondered if he was mad at Frank for talking to him so rudely. From what Stiles had observed over the past few months he could only guess that once Derek made a friend he was very protective over them.  

 

Stiles went and fetched Scott while Derek went and got Emanuel. It would be some time anyways before the reverse thrusters slowed them down enough for a crew to exit the ship. Stiles got to Scott and informed him of the problem. This would be their first official time out in space. Derek found Stiles and Scott sitting around talking around the storage area. Stiles was looking for the part they needed to replace. It was a common part that had a slightly high potential of failing. Stiles pulls the part out of the container and hands it to Scott. “So, our mission is to replace that part. Since I am the copilot I am really not allowed to leave the ship. You and Scott will have to scale the side of the ship and replace the part. We will head towards the airlock and we will suit up. Then I will man the airlock along with the air hose that will keep you tethered to the ship. You two will go and get the part replaced and return. Got it guys?” Derek said as they headed towards the airlock. The two nod, and proceed to follow Derek. The older male could only note how the two’s heartbeats were increasing. He wondered if it was from excitement or nervousness. Derek settled on thinking it was a little of both.

 

They got to the airlock area nearest to where the part needed to be replaced. The three of them started to put on their gear. “Alright guys let’s suit up!” Stiles yelled. Stiles made sure to remember all of his training, on top of being extremely excited to finally be a part of the handful of people that has experienced being in the vacuum of space. What made it even better was doing it with his best friend, and his other friend. Derek may not have been able to leave the ship and help them because of him being a copilot and they were required to stay on the ship to insure safe travels, but he was still helping Stiles and Scott from on the ship. The trio quickly were suited up. Stiles and Scott had the added element of the attachment hose to their suit. It attached next to where the oxygen tanks attached. They were the most hi-tech suits to date, and had many safety features built in. That being said there were still flaws. One of them being  durability. To make them more light so the astronauts could carry heavier oxygen tanks, a different material was used for the suits. It proved to be close to the quality of what they used previously, but under certain circumstances it would tear easier.

 

Finally the 3 were all set to go and get the part fixed. Scott had it strapped to his suit. Stiles had some tools strapped to him like a tool belt. “Are we ready?” Derek asked. When they all nodded and Derek was sure each one of them were attached to oxygen, Derek took the initiative and hit the button to open the airlock. It opened and the 3 of them were exposed to the vacuum of space. Stiles stared in awe at the space before his eyes. It was like all his dreams were coming true, minus the one about finding someone to love him back, but Stiles wouldn’t tell anyone about that one. Stiles was the first of the two to exit the ship because he knew exactly where the part was because this was his job, to know everything in and out about the guidance systems of the MARSIFAM18. The two scaled the ship using the next neat feature of their suits, magnetic gloves. When the switch on the side of the suit’s arm was activated it would provide added grasp, essentially hooking them to the ship, but still weak enough to use strength to break free from the ship so they could scale across it.

 

Scott and Stiles slowly made their way down the side of the ship to the area where the part needed to be replaced. The 3 of them were all able to speak to each other on the account of the build in coms in their suits. The United States flags on the side of their suit glistened as Scott and Stiles moved their way across the ship. If Stiles was honest, it was a workout. “How we doing out there? How close are you to the part of the ship?” Derek asked, trying to find out, but also make sure they both were alright. This was uncharted territory for him. He was strapped into the ship right by the airlock button and hose retrieval button. He was nervous because he couldn’t hear anything but the sound of his own breathing and the occasional loud breath let out by Scott or Stiles over the com. He couldn’t just hear their breathing normally or their heartbeats. This was space. A vacuum. That meant there was no way sound could travel, even with Derek’s superhuman hearing the dangerous frontier of space still took away that sense from him. It only left an eerie silence and whatever could be heard from within his suit.  Sitting there in silence while Scott and Stiles took care of the problem made Derek feel _alone_. Derek knew he had to follow protocol but if he had the choice he would be right out there making sure his friend was okay, and he also wanted to see some of the action that was being in space. Not sitting on the sidelines. Stiles responded that they were getting close.

 

The two reach the part on the ship that was broken and they began to do their job. Stiles wanted Scott a tool that was tethered to the tool belt. All of the tools on the tool belt were tethered, so they wouldn’t have tools just floating off into space. The part was clearly broken. It looked to be short circuited. Scott worked on removing the old part that needed replacing while Stiles handed him tools and inspected the new part to make sure there were no flaws with it. When Scott got the part off he accidentally let the old part go. It went flying into space. “Ooops” Scott said looking at Stiles wide eyed. “Dammit Scott. We’re out here to fix this not pollute space with space junk. You’ll regret it when that makes it’s way to earth and crashes into your front porch” Stiles said, half serious half joking. Stiles just shoves the new part into Scott’s hand and he starts to put it in where the old part used to go. Slowly they secured it in. Then they started to make their way back to the ship. “Mission accomplished Der, on our way back. Unless Scott would rather chuck some more things into space to see how far they go. Forever Scott. They would go on forever” Stiles jokes while he slowly scales the side of the ship, Scott in tail.

 

They finally return to the airlock and Derek hits the button to close the door and reestablish air. “So how was it?” Derek asks Stiles immediately. Stiles tells him how breathtaking it was to be in space, that his dreams came true, that his mom would be proud. The 3 of them spent some time talking before they had to return back in the ship. Derek notes how excited the two are, and even he is excited to have been apart of the experience. He was glad everything turned out alright. Having to sit there while the two were on the exterior of the ship, almost having their lives in his hand, he would have felt responsible if he hadn’t warned them if something was happening. Soon after that there was a rap on the door to the air lock, the side that led into the ship. They opened the door and entered. “The captain wants to speak with you all.” So they all went to the cockpit.

 

When they arrived at the cockpit, Frank looked unamused and kind of pissed off. “What is it captain?” Scott asked innocently, like his normal self, puppy dog eyes and all. “You two took way longer than you were supposed to. I suggest next time you make it faster. I don’t have time nor does NASA have time for shenanigans. You’re here for work. Not for play” Frank said sternly. Stiles couldn’t figure out why Frank was being such a jerk. He attributed it most likely to the stick up his ass. There was no way that Stiles and Scott could have done the task any faster. Sure they may have took a couple extra minutes, but Stiles wanted to make sure the part was in correctly before returning to the ship only to find out it was put in wrong. Stiles didn’t even thing when he responded. “SURE. Because I can TOTALLY crawl myself across a ship in the middle of space at olympic speed” Stiles said with a very sarcastic voice. He had troubles with his mouth. It got him into trouble a lot, but Frank kind of deserved it.

  
Suddenly Frank stalked closer to Stiles, anger swelling in his eyes. “I’d watch the way you speak to me...BOY. I’ve been around a lot longer than you. I’ll be damned if a couple rookies from some crappy city in California try to outshine me. I’ll make sure this is the last time you ever see space” Frank says viciously. At that point Derek’s face grows angry, his brows furrowing even more than usual. He steps in between Stiles and Frank. “I’d just worry about your OWN job if I were you. I would hate to write in my copilots reports about the times you seem to just nod off. Come on Stiles, Scott. I think we deserve something to eat after a mission gone well. The captain here can start the engines and get this ship moving, which could have been done earlier instead of wasting time to lecture anybody” Derek says with conviction while Frank looks offended. Before Frank could say anything else Derek corrals the 2 out of the room and to the lunch room. “Dang dude! That was awesome! Thanks for that” Stiles says before preparing 3 meals. “What are friends for?” Derek says. Stiles’ face lit up at the fact that Derek openly called him his friend. _Yeah, Friends..._


	4. Quasar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott, Stiles, and Derek's day off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: My computer is out of commission ATM. Macbooks have a dendency for the hard drive cable to wear out over time so my laptop isn't working at the moment. I ordered a new cable and it's in the mail. So once it arrives I will totally try to get on the next chapter but right now I am posting from my old laptop that is now my parents. It is extremely slow and annoying to write on. I also started school. While I won't have too much homework, that will always be a priority. I will try to get new chapters out frequently though. NOT BETA READ.

 

 

 

**QUASAR**  


 

It was the day after they had fixed the guidance system and protocol called for the team that risked everything to repair the ship be granted a day off. Much to Frank’s dismay he wasn't going to disobey protocol. So he angrily had Emanuel inform the Beacon Hills Trio that they could have the day off. It was a good and a bad thing. Not having to tend to plants or guidance systems constantly made Stiles feel relaxed.... For about an hour before he started to get antsy with boredom. After that he spent some of his day of trying to find ways to appease the boredom. It proved hard because the boy got tired of doing one thing quickly. Scott was focused on playing a game on his 4ds. So Stiles tries to occupy himself with something. He grabs his ipod and then a sketchbook he had brought. Stiles knew he wasn’t the best when it came to art, but he could draw pretty good cartoon characters. So that’s what he started to do. He started to sketch cartoon versions of him, Scott, and Derek on the surface of mars with an american flag stuck into the ground. It was kind of a childish drawing, but regardless he still found it to be satisfying his ever growing weariness. 

 

Stiles showed Scott the drawing and he liked it. He even took the time to notice how Derek and Stiles were posed closer together than Scott was to them. “Why didn’t you draw each other holding hands?” Scott teased. Stiles rolled his eyes trying not to let his face flush. As if on cue Derek waltzed into the room. “Who is drawing who holding hands?” Derek asked curiously. Stiles glared at Scott and wondered if he knew Derek was coming. Stiles hits Scott in the arm playfully and shows Derek the picture. “Nothing. He’s just being a douche” Stiles says letting Derek take the sketchbook out of his hand. Derek notes the amount of detail the drawing has for a cartoon. He can tell who each one is supposed to be. Derek smiles and hands Stiles the sketchbook back. “Looks good. I didn’t know you could draw” Derek says, plopping down next to Stiles on his bunk. “Yeah. I’m not the best but hey. It still looks okay. I think I got your murder brows just right” Stiles teases smiling and nudging his elbow into Derek. 

 

Derek lets out a scowl but then grins slightly. “So what did you have planned today besides drawing? I think I’ve read all of my books twice” Derek said while looking at Stiles. “Nothing really. Scott’s been lounging around all day playing video games. I finally had to bitch at him to put on some pants. Sleeping in underwear is fine but lounging in it around your friends, I don’t really wanna see the outline of your junk dude” Stiles said teasing Scott. He received a middle finger in return. “Whatever man. I’m not so sure. You’re gay. Who knows what guys junk you want to stare at” Scott said, on the surface it would seem he was just being general, but the inflection he used, it Stiles knew he was implying he was talking about Derek. “Gross dude. You’re like my brother. No one wants to see all of that anyways, not when you just lounge around all day and don't take a shower. We have the option to take a shower on here once and awhile dude” Stiles continued. 

 

Scott laughed and got up from his spot. “Okay how about this dudes. I’mma go shower since Stiles can’t handle a little man funk and then we’re gonna head to the lunch room and play a game a snuck on here. It’ll be fun I promise” Scott said getting up and heading towards the showering station. It wasn’t so much a shower, it was more or less a trickle. It was also connected to the gravity system. The water was reused and purified every time. The only good thing about the showering system was the heat. The water would trickle out nice and hot. So Scott goes and and begins showering while Derek and Stiles are left alone in the room. “Here” Stiles said before grabbing his ipod out of his pocket. He hands Derek the ipod. “Why’d you give me your ipod?” Derek asked curiously. “I thought I could musically educate you. Go and listen to the playlist I made on there. It’s titled ‘Sick Beats for Derek’. It’s time I expand your range from just The Black Keys” Stiles said, teasing him at the end. 

 

Derek nodded and stuffed the ipod in his pocket and pulling out his own. “Then here. Find some stuff you like on this and realized I don’t just have indie music on this” Derek said handing the ipod to Stiles. The pale skinned boy’s face lit up at the thought of finding new music. “Thanks” Stiles said. Stiles got up from his spot next to Derek and grabbed Scott’s 4ds. He takes a spot next to Derek and begins playing the game Scott was. It wasn’t towards any progress on the game it was in the mode where it was just for points. Stiles figured he could give Scott something to work towards if he could quickly beat his high score. It took Stiles a matter of minutes to beat Scott’s high score. This was how it was back home, Stiles easily beating Scott’s high scores when they would play video games. 

 

Scott returned to the room to see Derek peering over Stiles’ shoulder legs touching one another. “Dude not again. I just beat the previous high score you left” Scott said before reaching for something behind his bedding. It was a black cardboard box. “Awww dude you didn’t!” Stiles said enthusiastically. Derek didn’t understand what would possibly be in the black box, but he was forced to follow them to the lunch room anyways. Turns out Scott had made a couple friends to make the game more fun. He got them all to take their break so they could play. When they took their spots at the table in the room, having pushed two of them together. “What is this were playing?” Derek asked, getting quiet once the other players entered the room. “Well Der, let me tell you. It's hilarious and totally not for kids. It's called cards against humanity” Stiles said proceeding to tell Derek how the game worked. 

 

Derek haphazardly agreed to play the game. Scott passed out the cards and Stiles was the first one to be the judge. Derek didn’t know what to pick for the answer of the question. The question was ‘A romantic candlelit dinner would be incomplete without blank’. Derek looked at his cards and couldn’t find an answer that didn’t sound bad so he picked one and placed it face down. When everyone placed their cards in it was Stiles’ chance to judge. He picked up the cards and read them aloud. The funniest answer being ‘Ripping into a man’s chest and pulling out his still-beating heart’. Stiles did make a comment on Derek’s card though, even though he didn’t know it was Derek’s. “This one deserves some points for truth. Dates like this are totally full of sexual tension. It was the next person’s turn and that just happened to be Derek. They were going clockwise around the table. Dereks black card was ‘Blank. That is my fetish’. It made him uneasy but he was trying to have fun. Even if he was kind of uncomfortable trying to be funny around people he hardly knew. He admired the way Stiles could just be fine around these new people he too didn’t know very well. 

 

Stiles had found the perfect card to play for Derek. It wasn’t the funniest in the world, but he wanted to see the reaction he would receive. He could always use the excuse of not having another card to play. Stiles had prided himself in his love of Batman, and he often referred to himself as batman, so he chose that card to play. When he played the card he wasn’t sure if Derek had blushed at the card he chose or someone else's. Then Derek chose his card. “Not exactly a fetish but...I mean I wouldn’t NOT sleep with him” Derek said, the shade of pink on his face showing even more through his ears. Stiles’ jaw almost dropped at Derek’s outloud admission. He couldn’t believe he’d said that in front of people he had just met. He didn’t seem like the kind of person, Stiles thought that maybe he was slowly getting Derek to open up and start not being so scared to talk to new people. He just hoped they would have another game night like this. One where Derek would have another chance to open up. 

  
They play the game for a while until they someone approaches winning. Scott is the one that ends up winning and Stiles attributes it to how good he is at being vulgar in funny. Stiles was a close second while Derek trailed behind at 5th place. They didn’t hold it against him though. Stiles was just glad that Derek agreed to play. The rest of the day consisted of talking to one another. Stiles even had Derek stay in his room for a good portion of the ‘night’. In addition to music Stiles had movies loaded on his ipod, ones Derek hadn't seen. So he had Derek break out his ipod and they watched it crammed on Derek’s bed. Derek had one of the 3 singles rooms on the ship. They figured they would give Scott some time to himself to play his video games, but Derek knew what he really was doing and he did his best to drown it out. His werewolf hearing required him to do it for a lot of people on the ship considering about half of the crew was male. Derek was guilty in more ways than one. Guilty for masterbating when he was sure he was alone, guilty of jacking off to the thought of Stiles, and guilty for listening in on Stiles’ sessions. He didn’t mean to listen in, but something about Stiles made it impossible to drown him out. He thought maybe it was the slight whimpers he would let out. Maybe it was the way he could hear Stiles touching himself, clearly jacking off while also penetrating himself. It never failed to leave Derek frustrated and horny. He wasn’t going to do anything about it though. He was good with being friends with Stiles. Derek didn’t think he even deserved a relationship yet. When they finished the movies and it was fairly late they decided to turn in, it was a problem for Derek though. He was planning on turning in but the way he was on the bed Stiles had fallen asleep on him. Derek didn’t want to wake him, so he decided to just sleep like this. He would indulge in it just this once. He could easily say that he had also fallen asleep during the movie. It was an easy excuse and Stiles would likely believe it. So Derek moves and adjusts themselves. He flicks the switch to the light. Derek hadn’t expected to be big spooning Stiles tonight, but he was. He wouldn’t let it go past that though,  _ friends can cuddle together right _ . Derek thought to himself before drifting off to sleep. 


	5. Magnetosphere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew of the MarsIFAM2018 get a chance to video chat loved ones on Earth. Stiles introduces Derek to his father, and Derek introduces Stiles to his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My computer is alive again. Yay. Enjoy. {not beta'd}

 

 

 

**MAGNETOSPHERE**

 

_ Connecting....  _

_ User: StarStiles1 connected successfully to partner ‘John_Stilinski’  _

_ Source: Monitor 1 input 1 _

 

Stiles couldn’t believe he was getting the chance to talk to his father after his departure 4 and a half months ago. Not much had changed since the game of Cards Against Humanity. Derek and Stiles had gotten closer, but neither of them had addressed their feelings towards one another. Derek was even present for this video chat with Stiles’ father. Stiles planned on introducing him. Scott was also present. It was an organized day by NASA where each passenger would have a chance to talk to loved one’s back home. Frank told everyone last minute that today would be the day they could have 30 minutes per person to talk to someone back home. Stiles would have some time to talk to his father alone, but Derek and Scott were right outside the door for when Stiles wanted them to enter. 

 

John came up on the screen and Stiles’ face lit up. “Hi Dad!” Stiles yelled into the screen. He could see his father who was also smiling and wearing his usual police uniform. “Hey son! How’s it going? Meet any aliens yet?” John said jokingly. Little did the sheriff know he had met a werewolf and was becoming close friends with said werewolf. Stiles didn’t know that Derek was a werewolf yet, but it was only a matter of time before a situation arose that would make the cat come out of the bag, or in this case, the canine. “No dad no aliens, but I did make a new friend. Derek, the other member of what I call the Beacon Hills Trio. The other crew members even call us that name, and they kind of figure we tend to keep to our own group so they don’t talk to us much besides stuff involving work. I mean Scotts made a couple friends but I mostly talk to Derek” Stiles said, kind of turning a slight tinge of pink. “Oh? Derek Hale? I know Talia, we’ve talked a couple times, I’ve seen her at the supermarket and get to talking about our boys in space. How is that going? Are you  _ just _ friends?” John said, most likely catching onto his son’s subtle attraction to Derek. He tried to keep it under wraps but His father saw the way he blushed at the mention of Derek. John knew how Stiles worked, and when he fell for someone he fell hard and would try to keep it from them. He wouldn’t allow himself to let the other person know in fear of being rejected, years of being rejected had conditioned him from telling anyone he’d developed feelings for that he liked them, or it stopped him from wanting to develop feelings at all. “Yes dad, we’re just friends” Stiles said, face turning a couple shades of red. Sometimes Stiles hated being so light, because when he blushed it was written all over his face. 

 

Derek could hear the conversation from where he was, werewolf hearing and all and he recognized the sheriff's familiar voice. He could tell the nervousness within Stiles the moment his father asked if he and Derek were just friends. Derek noted the slight blip in Stiles’ heartbeat when he answered. It was the slightest blip, and it could just have been a fluke. Stiles really could mean they’re just friends, but maybe he wanted something more. Derek was starting to catch feelings too, but it was hardly the time to talk about them. Their mission was important, and Derek didn’t want to mess what they had up. Stiles was obviously suppressing his feelings for a reason, so Derek didn’t want to push. Derek listened to the Sheriff and Stiles talk for a bit, they mostly talked about the happenings on the ship, and Stiles mentioned Frank, how douchey he was. Stiles talked about being able to scale the side of the ship. Derek could hear the worry in Stiles’ father’s voice, but Stiles assured him he was alright.

 

Finally Stiles wanted Scott and Derek to come in and say hello. Derek was nervous because he had never really spoke to the sheriff besides when he had responded to the scene when  _ it _ happened. Derek remembered the look of sympathy written all over the sheriff’s face. “Derek come here. Dad, this is Derek Hale, Derek, this is my dad, you probably remember him as the sheriff of Beacon Hills” Stiles said introducing them to each other. Scott had already greeted the sheriff. Derek said hello to the man and they talked a little bit before the sheriff started to talk to Scott. It seemed very awkward for Derek to be speaking to the father of Stiles, they seemed so alike yet so different. He could only imagine how the elder Stilinski would be if he met one of Stiles’ significant others.  Derek took in the defensive nature of the sheriff. Derek was a werewolf, but he couldn’t help but fear the man. Before he knew it he was with Stiles in the hallway. It was Scott's turn to talk to loved ones. 

 

_ Connecting.... _

_ User: ScottisCool11 connected successfully to partner ‘Melissa_McCall’  _

_ Source: Monitor 1 input 1 _

 

Melissa’s face popped on the screen and Scott’s face was beaming. Scott only had one parent in his life as far as he was concerned, and that was Melissa. His father had left at a young age and Scott could have cared less where the alcoholic ended up. His family consisted of 3 people, Stiles, his mom, and the Sheriff. Scott wouldn’t consider the sheriff a father, but more so a father figure. Scott and Stiles had been friends since they were young, and growing up without a father would have been hard if it weren’t for the sheriff. He made sure to have Stiles invite Scott with them when they went certain places for bonding. His favorite is when the three of them went to their first baseball game. 

 

Melissa talked to Scott for the majority of the time and it made Melissa very happy. She never really dated around after Scott’s dad had left, and Scott was all she had. When Scott had gotten accepted into NASA she was nervous for him, but it was his dream to become an astronaut with his best friend. She wasn’t going to stop him from chasing his dream, not even if it put him in danger. At the end of the night it was still his choice to go into space. It made her very proud that her son was apart of the few that made it into space. Melissa had an underlying worry that wouldn’t go away though. She wouldn’t rest properly until Scott returned home. She wouldn’t appease the anxiety until she could have her son in her arms again. Scott talked to his mom for his allowed time before exiting the room and passing on the room onto Derek. Derek was nervous to introduce Stiles to his family, because while his family was very loving, some of them could be a little much. His sisters liked to pick on him and they would likely be shocked at him making friends after all this time. 

 

_ Connecting.... _

_ User: HaleDerek connected to ‘It’sLauraBitch!’  _

_ Source Monitor 1 input 1 _

 

Derek’s face was met with his multiple family members. Laura was in the center and closest to the camera. Talia, his mother was next to her on the left while Cora was on Laura’s right. Peter was behind the group. Derek talks to them, or more so answers all the questions that they have. Laura and Talia did most of the talking. Derek wasn’t really looking forward to the questions that would arise once he mentioned Stiles, but if he was going to introduce them to Stiles he should at least tell them that someone was going to meet them. Before that though Laura thought it would be a good idea to bring up lycanthropy without actually bringing it up. “So bro how does  _ IT _ feel? Being away from earth must feel different on the inside right?” Laura said trying to not directly reference them being werewolves. 

 

It was true that Derek did feel a little different the further he got away from the Earth’s moon. It was a strange feeling. When Derek was alone in his room he made sure to check if he still had his powers, and he indeed did. The only difference was the pack bonds he shared had lessened, and the pull of the moon was not as great. If he was completely honest he would say he was kind of closed off in a sense because he wasn’t around any pack, but slowly he was making pack bonds with Stiles. Since Stiles wasn’t a werewolf the process of making pack bonds took a little longer, and the fact that Derek was bad at making friends made the process take even longer. Either way Derek knew he would at least have one pack member with him on this trip, maybe even two, depending on how much more interaction with Scott he would get. Derek was an alpha, and he needed pack, the distant feeling of his pack wasn’t taking a tole on him yet, but it would soon if he didn’t start making the process accelerate with Stiles. Talia was of course still the alpha of the Hale pack, but Derek had started to receive some of the power early he had all the powers of an alpha, and he also had his mother to guide him and be the voice of reason in the pack. Just because Derek had alpha powers, Talia’s word was final. 

 

Derek finally explained in minimal detail to Laura and the rest of the Hales how he was feeling in terms that wouldn’t trigger anyone monitoring the video call as suspicious. Then Talia finally brought something up so Derek could lead into telling them about Stiles. “So Derek, have you made any friends sweety?” Talia asked, always concerned about her son ever since the incident with Paige. “Yeah” Derek breathed out and Laura and Cora’s eyes opened wide in shock. “REALLY?!” Cora blurts out loud, her voice making the microphone break up slightly from the high volume. “Yeah. I actually wanted you all to meet him. He’s the sheriff’s son back home. Stiles Stilinski” Derek said explaining to them who it was. Laura raised an eyebrow at the way Derek’s ears turned a couple shades more pink then they were. She didn’t push it though, she figured it was hard for Derek to admit he had a new friend. 

 

Stiles entered the room when Derek called him in. He totally wasn’t freaking out, but at the same time he was. He didn’t know why he was freaking out because it wasn’t like he was in a meeting the family situation for a relationship, this was only a friendship. He couldn’t calm himself though, he couldn’t help but think he might say something to insult Derek’s family. That wasn’t what happened though. The opposite happened, and Derek’s family took to Stiles very well. With what little time Stiles had to talk to them he could tell that him and Cora could be good friends to talk shit together with. Laura could be another good friend, maybe even a good older sister figure, Stiles wasn’t sure because he’d never had any siblings, besides Scott being his brother, whether it was by blood or not. Talia’s caring nature reminded him a lot of his mother, with the added roughness that Talia had. The roughness was this hardened nature that would strive to protect her family and children. Peter was the one that Stiles was kind of uneasy about meeting because right away he got kind of a creeper vibe from the man. That being said Stiles wasn’t totally off put by him, just some of the comments made, made Stiles question if Peter was hitting on him, but Laura explained that's just how ‘Uncle Peter’ was. 

  
Their sessions had ended and Stiles and Derek lingered alone in the video chat room to talk a little. “Thank you for meeting them. It means a lot. They know I have a hard time making friends and for you to talk to my family show them I am trying to go out and make friends means the world to me” Derek said sincerely. Stiles shot Derek a smile because he was happy too. He was happy he was close enough with Derek to have the man want him to introduce him to his family. Stiles was happy that himself could introduce him to his father. Stiles had tons of friends, but Derek was different. He was becoming a very good friend with Stiles, almost to the level of Scott, but with underlying feelings for Derek. This was a first for him. All the people he had fallen for had never started out as his friend, he had always liked them from a distance, and then befriended them after being rejected. It both excited him and scared him at the same time. “No problem Der. I was glad you agreed to meet my father as well. So how about we go check on our favorite room, see how all our little green buddies are doing?” Stiles said. Derek smiled and nodded and they went to the room of plants and began their work. All through the process Stiles was playing Derek’s ipod out loud, discovering new music. The day went perfectly. The two were content with each other’s company for the rest of their work that day. 


	6. Orbits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek ends up yelling at Stiles after he struggles coping with the anniversary of Paige's death.  
> WARNING>>> The beginning has NSFW elements. AKA Stiles has Stiles time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so posting on this story is probably just going to end up being a weekly thing. My classes have a lot of homework so I don't have as much time to write. Or I'm just too exhausted to write a chapter by the time I get home some days so Its going to be a weekly 'when I have time' kind of thing. For sure though expect one a week.

 

 

 

**ORBITS**

 

4 and a half months had past and Stiles was for the most part happy. Things were going good, He couldn’t stop thinking about Mars and finally arriving. He thought about home. He thought about a lot of things. Scott and Stiles had downtime a lot and would hang out in their room, taking turns on Scott’s 4DS. Stiles was living the life in space. Derek and him would conduct their work together. On certain days with their free time him and Derek would take to the exercise room to make sure they stayed fit, it was more so Derek’s idea. It was his idea because he wanted to make sure Stiles maintained some muscle mass in space since some of the rooms he was in on a daily basis had no gravity. Today was going well so far for Stiles. He woke up and Scott was already gone. This meant he could have some alone time. He knew Derek was scheduled to go and be co pilot earlier in the day so there was no possible way for interruption. He didn’t have to go do his checks for another hour. 

 

Stiles’ mind started to drift to dirty thoughts. It wasn’t often that he had the chance to get some much needed release, but he had finally found time to get some. Sometimes when it got really bad he would kick Scott out of the room for a while, banishing him to the common area. They had kind of an understanding, Scott would do the same to him sometimes and Stiles would return back to the room smelling of the deed. It really didn’t bother him though. He would either leave the room and leave the door open to air out or just tough it out. Scott did the same with Stiles. So that is how Stiles found himself on his bed with his boxers around his ankles. For occasions like this he would usually bring up photos from his secret stash on his ipod, but Derek still had his ipod so Stiles was left with his imagination. Stiles had a very vivid imagination so it wasn’t to hard to think of something. He thought about Derek for the most part. 

 

Stiles wouldn’t say he was into too many kinks, but he also wasn’t vanilla. Stiles was now relieving himself, hand clamped around his member stroking thinking of Derek. He wasn’t just thinking about Derek. He was thinking about him and Derek, on the surface of mars, in one of the oxygen sealed rooms that made it so they could touch the surface of mars with their bare hands without having to worry about a suit. It would be the very place they would start to plant crops and try to get the land to grow things. Instead of working on plants though Stiles was imagining Derek and Stiles on the planet, Stiles on his hands and knees taking Derek. Stiles knew in real life doing it on the ground like that would hurt, but he was too turned on to care. He focused on think of Derek having sex with him and probably becoming the first two people to have sex on mars. 

 

Stiles finds that using one's imagination has its perks because now instead of having to hold his ipod in one hand and the other to stroke his member, he could now take care of his other desires. Stiles didn’t have a preference when it came to thinking about sex, considering he was still a virgin and never had sex. All of his sexual desires weren’t specific, he knew he liked it either way, top or bottom. So Stiles started to add some much needed pleasure and he started massaging his other intimate area. It made him squirm a little at first, but soon he was whimpering and letting out soft sounds of pleasure as he stimulated himself from the front and back. 

 

Stiles’ fantasies switched through his session. He thought about Derek taking him, he thought about taking Derek, blowing Derek, Derek blowing him. It all led up to the moment he was waiting for. Stiles was so close and what finally sent him over the edge was him thinking about Derek thrusting into him just right, at the perfect angle, the angle he was achieving in that very moment. With a moan Stiles reached climax and painted, beads of sweat littering his face. 

 

Stiles cleaned up and headed out of his room and began to work. It went by much faster and less antsy now that he had a release. He was on top of the world.... That is until he it was time for him and Derek to work together. Stiles noticed it right away, almost like an hour was following Derek around. Derek didn’t seem like his normal neutral face, or the smiling face that being friends with Stiles brought out more often lately. Now his face was plastered with what appeared to be anger, and what Stiles thought was underlying hurt. 

 

They worked in silence when Stiles’ failed attempts to get the man to talk hadn’t worked. Derek probably guessed that Stiles would just leave him alone and stop trying to talk. Derek had underestimated Stiles though, he wasn’t the type of person to leave things alone. Derek was also his friend and he had to know if he was alright. “Did Frank do something to piss you off Der? Come on you can tell me. I’m your friend” Stiles said, trying to seem sympathetic and maybe calm Derek down a little. Stiles paused for a minute to see if he could get something out of Derek, but nothing. He tried a couple more times to offer his services, trying to get Derek to vent to him, but the man just didn’t budge or say anything. That is, until Derek probably had enough of Stiles trying to help. “Come on Derek please talk to me, I can help, like I said we’re friends and frie----” Stiles says before being cut off by Derek. “SHUT UP STILES!” Derek yells, anger seething through his face. For a second Stiles could have sworn Derek literally saw read because it appeared like his eyes had flashed a deep red color, but Stiles figured it was his imagination. 

 

Moments of silence past and Stiles was still kind of in shock. Derek had his moments where he would tell Stiles to shut up in a friendly kind of way, but Derek had never talked to Stiles like this before out of anger. He didn’t totally notice Derek storming out the room either. Stiles knew it had to be more than just some problem with Frank. He could see past the anger, he could notice that Derek looked almost on the brink of crying. He wondered just how close Derek was to crying. Either way he recognized that kind of demeanor though, it was how he was after his mother died. He was angry, he was sad. It would spark up close to the anniversary of her death too. Stiles would get mad, but more down than anything. He would bring flowers to her grave, and on the way maybe be mad at the world and be rude to a couple strangers. He felt bad about it the next day, but sometimes he couldn't totally hold himself back. 

 

Stiles knew different people had different ways of coping, but Stiles had Scott that slowly helped him get out of his wallowing. He knew maybe he could help Derek, and by the off chance Stiles was completely wrong about the reason Derek was mad, Stiles would back off and apologize. So Stiles goes to Derek’s room, because he figures that’s where he headed. He was right, and Stiles tries wrapping on the door, but is returned with no response. So Stiles just opens the door instead. 

 

His eyes are met with the sight of an obvious frustrated Derek sitting on his bed clutching a photo like his life depended on it. “Sorry” was heard by Stiles. It was soft, broken sounding. Stiles couldn’t help but feel bad for Derek. He knew exactly what it was like to feel loss. He knew Derek might not want to talk about it, but he was going to try and cheer him up. He sat on the bed next to Derek and he gazed at the picture of a younger girl that he could only put together as him being a past love of Derek’s. “Look, I forgive you for yelling at me, and I totally understand that today must be a touchy day I’m guessing. I get it, I totally do. My mom passed when I was younger. I know the look in one’s eye to tell. I struggle with it too sometimes. I used to be angry just like you were, still am sometimes, but Scott has forced me to get out of that. Everyone deals with things their own way, but maybe you could try and just spend today with me? We can do things to try and make things suck less. Maybe we could do something to honor her? We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. It took me years to talk about it with Scott. How I was with her when she died” Stiles said, Derek breaking the gaze with the photo and turning his attention to Stiles. 

 

Derek didn’t know that piece of information about Stiles. It made him kind of feel special that he would share that with him. It made him feel less on edge that Stiles knew what it was to feel the loss of someone dear. Derek didn’t mean to be a dick to Stiles, the anniversary just made him in very little control of his wolf. The anger was seething through. Now though his wolf was strangely calmed by the compassion and care Stiles was showing. Derek hadn’t even noticed at first when Stiles had put his arm on his shoulder. Derek had never even considered any other way to spend the day then feeling pain and anger. He never really had a reason to. His family knew to leave him alone on this day. Stiles on the other hand wasn’t forcing him into anything, he was simply making a suggestion, offering something, giving Derek the choice. It both scared and made Derek feel good that Stiles wanted to help him ‘get over’ the death of Paige. It scared him the thought of not having this day affect him, but it also calmed him knowing he might be able to spend this day in a different light. “Her name was Paige. She was my first love. She-She died” Derek said. 

 

Stiles told Derek that he didn’t have to continue if he didn’t want to, but Derek chose to continue. He told Stiles about how he cared for her. How an ‘incident’ resulted in her dying in his arms. He left out the werewolf details, but included as much detail as he could. Oddly enough to Derek telling the story gave him a purging feeling. It didn’t get rid of all the hurt, but it soothed a lot of it. “So what did you have in mind for not spending the day like I usually do?” Derek asked curiously. “Well. Let's spend the day just hanging out. Maybe we could do something to honor her? I can draw pretty well. Maybe I could teach you some things about drawing and we could take a crack at drawing a portrait in her honor? I haven’t drawn in a while, it could be stress relief for the both of us. 

 

So that is what they did. Stiles spent some of the day teaching Derek about the concepts of drawing, line, value/shading, etc. They did that after they had returned to the plant room, doing the work while Stiles also taught him. When they had a break the two actually started working on the portraits, Derek practicing basic shape of the head while Stiles got right along sketching the picture. It didn’t take him long to have everything roughly drawn out. Pretty soon they had to return to work but they chose to work together and get everything done early so they could continue their drawings. Derek was surprisingly having fun and no one would have ever known he was in a bad mood earlier in the day. Derek was having fun having Stiles teach him a skill, whether or not he would be good at it. It meant a lot to him that Stiles cared this much about him. 

  
They end up staying up late at ‘night’ to finish the portrait in Derek’s room. Derek ends up with an okay result. It isn’t too bad for his first time, but Stiles puts it to shame, not that Stiles was rubbing it in his face. Stiles just had way more experience. “Thanks. It means a lot Stiles” Derek says when he sees the finished product Stiles gives to him. “No problem! I’m glad I could help” Stiles said giving Derek a warm smile. Derek really thinks that she would have liked this. Derek even thinks that she would want this for him. That she would want him to move on. Sure Derek had tried moving on before, and it almost got his family killed, but Stiles was different. He wasn’t like Kate. When Derek was with Kate he hadn’t caught on to Kate’s manipulative ways because he was still really stricken with grief from Paige. Now he was an adult and slowly healing, with Stiles helping him along he knew he could heal even more. He knew they would continue to become good friends.  _ Maybe even more. _


	7. Supernova

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek stumbles upon Stiles' secret playlists on his ipod. Then a group of the crew members gather round for a nice game of truth or dare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY for the late post. I haven't had time to write this. I had a composition due on Thursday and a test as well. Then I had work and homework. I also have been trying to get a good amount of cosplay done for a con that is coming up. I have't forgot about you guys. 
> 
> I totally got inspired by the Zenon movies for this chapter. Also if you want a good representation for the space craft, if you have ever seen the Zenon disney movies its kind of like the space station on a much smaller scale.

 

 

 

**SUPERNOVA**

 

5 and a half months in Stiles and Derek find themselves having a normal day. The two are tending to the plants, but today was different in some ways. Derek had recently succumb to boredom so he figured it was a smart idea to start tearing through the songs on Stiles’ ipod that he had let him borrow. He had been listening to a lot of the songs for a while and slowly building his tastes. Derek would never directly agree to Stiles that his own music tastes were limited to that of indie bands, but it was more or less true. It wasn’t true anymore thought because of Stiles, once he returned to earth and had access to put new music on his ipod he would have a lot to put on because a lot of the music Stiles had on his Derek had taken a liking to. 

 

Derek had one headphone in while he was working with Stiles. The pale boy seemed to notice this and turned his attention to Derek who was humming along to one of the songs he had taken a liking to. “Like that song huh? Glad I could help you listen to something besides the Black Keys or the Arctic Monkeys. Been listening to your ipod lately too Der. I’ll tell you all their music makes me wanna light up a cigarette throw on some black shades and a leather jacket” Stiles said laughing. Derek let out his own laugh in response because even he had to admit it was kind of true. They worked for a while before Derek stopped to change the playlist he was currently in. He was feeling a little curious and started looking through them all when he scrolled all the way to the bottom. Derek found two folders named ‘000 Top Secret 1 and 000 Top Secret 2’. Most likely it had the three zeros at the beginning because of the way the ipod would organize the playlists. Since numbers usually ended up at the bottom of the organization scheme it would most likely be at the very bottom. 

 

Derek questions if he should open it because it did say top secret, and he thought maybe it was one of Stiles’ secret playlists that he didn’t want anyone else to hear. Derek figured it couldn’t hurt to bad because it was only music. He was of course wrong and stumbled on a playlist that made his own heartache. The one marked Top Secret 1 was filled with tons of depressing songs and depressing love songs that Stiles would undoubtedly torture himself with when he was feeling lonely and down. Derek knew all about Stiles’ love life or lack thereof and he identified with the man about feeling lonely. After a couple songs he figured he should exit out because even they were starting to depress him. Part of him wanted to delete the songs and keep Stiles from subjecting himself to them, but he figured it wouldn’t be the right thing to do. It was Stiles’ choice to have the music and maybe in some way it helped Stiles cope with being lonely. 

 

Expecting another playlist filled with depressing music Derek just hits shuffle on the next playlist, the one titled ‘Top Secret 2’. What Derek didn’t expect was a huge throwback to his childhood, and also Stiles’ childhood. It had been a long time since he had seen this movie and here he was hearing one of the songs from it’s soundtrack. Derek read the playlist description and laughed out loud. ‘Top Secret NASA playlist for Stiles’ badass space travel time’. Before the song continued any further he took out the headphones and looked at Stiles. He figured Stiles wouldn’t be too mad if he brought up the playlist. It might even get a good laugh or tinge of embarrassment out of him. It was some much needed revenge of the times Stiles would say something to embarrass him in front of Scott or some of the other members. “Stiles.... This song. You gotta hear it. Like zedus lapedus it’s totally rad” Derek let out in a preppy white girl voice. 

 

Stiles looked up from the plant he was inspecting looking absolutely mortified. Stiles had meant for that playlist to be locked up tight. He had meant for it to be located deep in the bowels of his ipod, but Derek being the crafty person he was stumbled on the playlist. Before Stiles could speak up Derek began the song. _ Stargazing mega fast you hit me like a cosmic blast,  _ _ Giving me a technicolor world, Putting me in overdrive speed of light I'm so alive. _ Stiles looked at Derek in awe because he was at first making fun of Stiles for having this song in a playlist for time travel, but now Derek’s attitude changed. Now he was mouthing the words to Stiles like he was enjoying the playlist and it made Stiles both laugh and start to sing along with Derek.  _ Interplanetary Megastellar Hydrostatic, There’s no gravity between us, Our love is automatic.  _ If Stiles or Derek were reading into things they would have noticed they were both singing along to a love song, a love song they were singing to each other, but they weren’t they were more focused on having a good time. It was an apparent thing that both of them had seen the movie tons of times to remember the lyrics so well.  _ Zoom zoom zoom, make my heart go boom boom,  _ _ My supernova girl, Zoom zoom zoom make my heart go boom boom, My super nova girl. _ The two continued singing along to the song while they continued their work, occasionally glancing over to the other. Derek had meant for this to be embarrassing for Stiles, but instead it became a bonding tool for the both of them that would lead into a conversation about their love for old disney movies. It was a throwback for Derek and he hadn’t seen that movie in a long time. It made him want to watch it. It was a movie that inspired him and made him long to see the regions of space. It was likely one of Stiles’ favorites as well if he had a song from the movie. 

 

The song ended and another song to do with space began. Derek stopped it and turned it back to the normal playlist he usually listened to. He figured he could keep those set of songs in Stiles’ top secret playlist to listen to on special occasions. The two work more or less in silence from then on besides some occasional conversation. They are in a fairly good mood from having their moment geeking out over their childhood movie. Then it came time for them to take a break. They went to the common area and got food and began to eat in silence at a table. That is exactly what they would have done for the duration of the break, but instead Scott showed up and he looked like he was having fun. Apparently him and some of the space crew members were acting like a couple teenagers indulging in a game of truth or dare. 

 

Stiles was game, but Derek needed some goading along to get him to play. Derek agreed only because he figured that making fun of Stiles’ secret playlist warranted him getting some revenge. Little did he know that Stiles wouldn’t be the one that would be daring him to do outrageous dares. Scott was the first one to take on a dare in the group. Stiles had dared him to eat one of the dehydrated meals without any water added to it. Scott wasn’t going to let some little dehydrated meal stand in the way of his honor, so he courageously ripped open the bag of the meal and downed it as quick as possible. 10 minutes later he returned from a much required emergency bathroom break. “You’re such an asshole dude. Just wait until I get the next chance to dare” Scott said glaring at Stiles. He wasn’t actually mad at the boy, he was the one who agreed to a dare in the first place but he had a plan that could be perfect. He hoped it would also get the mutual pining going on between Derek and Stiles to gain some progress. 

 

Stiles was the next of the Beacon Hills Trio to be given the opportunity to be dared. He didn’t pick dare thought, because it was Scott who would be daring him and he wasn’t stupid. He was going to avoid dare like the plague if it was Scott that would dare him because Stiles had a feeling Scott had a plan for Stiles if he got an opportunity to dare him. Stiles could tell by the smirk on his face that it had to do with Stiles’ pretty bad crush on Derek. He figured though since Scott wasn’t an asshole or a bad friend he wouldn’t make him tell any truths that might hurt the relationship between Derek and Stiles. “Okay Stiles. You chose truth, tell us the kind of guys you like...” Scott said with a wicked smirk on his face. It was a devious question because it wasn’t directly asking about Derek but Scott knew that Stiles would describe Derek almost to a T. Stiles’ face went red because Scott kind of told indirectly told people that he liked men. Not that Stiles was hiding it, he was never really acting like he was in the closet to anyone. 

 

Scott was still smirking and then proceeded to gesture to Stiles. “Well. Let's hear it” Scott said trying to get Stiles to hurry up because they didn’t have all the time in the world to play the game. In fact pretty soon a lot of them would have to return to their respective jobs. Stiles rolled his eyes at his best friend. He didn’t know how he could be so evil but still have those puppy dog eyes. “Fine. I mean I can like any type of guy, but.....my ‘type’ I guess you could say or rather muscular masculine men. Stubble does... _ things _ to me. I’m also a sucker for a nice smile and eyes. I mean personality is also a big factor too but it's hard to say what kind of personality I’ll be attracted to. As long as they aren’t a jerk. If they understand me or try to understand me and put up with my hyperactiveness then thats a plus” Stiles said avoiding too much detail in terms of personality. If he said too much it might tip Derek off even more. Stiles liked Derek for a lot more than just his looks. His personality was the first thing Stiles fell for. Sure at first it was hard to get him started with talking, which he knew it going in, but every day he has spent with Derek just made him like him more and more as the days past. He hated himself for having feelings for the man because he was so unsure of Derek’s feelings towards him. Most of the time he seemed to just be a friend to him, but Scott occasionally would tell Stiles how Derek seemed like he liked Stiles. Stiles thought it was just his friend trying to get him to get out there and not avoid giving anyone a chance. Stiles was so used to the rejection he would rather not try anything. It was a bad way to live life, but it was the way Stiles’ mind was working at the moment. 

 

Derek didn’t seemed to be set off by the comment on the surface, but Derek got a little suspicious of how Stiles basically described his muscular build. It made Derek wonder if Stiles did return his feelings in the correct manner, but he wouldn’t confront Stiles about it, because to him, Stiles seemed like the kind of person who would be direct about these things.   _ Or would he? _ Derek thought to himself, because Stiles hadn’t really went into too much detail about his love life. Derek wondered if Stiles even wanted a relationship at all. Derek was in a daze and didn’t notice the game continue around him until it was his turn to be asked. Derek was a fairly private person around new people, not that these people were new, they were his crew members, but a fair amount of them he had not been acquainted with. That is the reason why Derek chose dare. Choosing dare meant he wouldn’t have to answer any questions that might bring up a bad part of his past. It would prevent anything from coming up that would make things awkward. This was still the better choice even though it was Scott being the one daring him. Scott had an even bigger grin than before when it was Stiles’ turn. Stiles was panicking inside because he didn’t want Scott to do anything that would make Derek uncomfortable and want to leave. He didn’t want him to do anything that might set him off. Ever since he found out about Paige he had been more considerate of feelings, just like finding out about his mom had made Derek more considerate of Stiles’ as well. 

 

Scott looked like he was thinking very hard about the words that were going to leave his mouth. It took about 30 seconds for him to make up his mind before he actually opened his mouth to speak. “Okay Derek. Lets see.... I dare you to.....KISS STILES! On the lips” Scott said while Stiles’ panic rose 10 fold. This isn’t really how Stiles wanted a first kiss with Derek to be like. He wasn’t opposed to it, but it made him feel uneasy, because if it meant nothing to Derek than it would hurt Stiles even more getting to do it, just for it to end up meaning nothing but a simple dare. Stiles hoped that Derek would just refuse and forfeit and take it as a loss. 

 

That isn’t what Derek did though. Stiles was right next to Derek as he was playing the entire time so it wouldn’t be hard to kiss him. Stiles was still sitting there in his own world before Derek’s actions registered in his brain. Before the blink of an eye Derek was invading his space, an arm going around Stiles’ shoulder. Stiles thought the arm felt warm. A type of warmth from a human body he hadn’t felt in a long time. Sure he would receive an occasional hug from Scott now and again, but this felt different to him for some reason. Then rather large hands brushed up against his face, getting him to turn his head to the left. He complied and allowed his neck to turn. Stiles’ eyes were met with the uncertain gaze of Derek. Derek had been in his own mind while this was all going on. He couldn’t tell Stiles how he felt, but maybe if he kissed him he would see how he felt, then maybe Stiles would come to him and tell him how he feeled. It was perfect because if it didn’t mean anything, it was just a game and they could go back to being friends and Derek could start his process of getting over Stiles. 

 

Derek’s face got closer in Stiles’ vision. He could feel the heat radiating off the man. He wondered how a human could burn so warm in the depths of space. Stiles found himself constantly cold on this ship. Slowly Derek got closer to the man next to him before they were inches apart from their mouths meeting. Sparks ignited through the both of them when their lips finally met. It wasn’t just a kiss done out of a game of truth or dare. The kiss to the both of them was something that sent fireworks and butterflies through the both of them. It was something special. They become unaware of the world around them while they were connected at the lips. Neither of them knew how much time had past before they broke apart when Scott let out a cough. Derek looked down at a very pink cheeked Stiles. He couldn’t read whether or not Stiles liked the kiss because he had craved human contact or because Stiles actually liked him, but the kiss for Derek made him start to think more and more that Stiles would make a great mate if he would accept him. If Derek himself could get over his own demons like Paige, that Stiles was actually helping him get over, which he never thought he could get over. Stiles took a few moments to get the gears in his head to start turning again. None of Stiles’ romantic escapades in his lifetime compared to the kiss he shared with Derek. It was almost unreal to him. He felt like he was floating, and not the type of floating from being in zero gravity. 

A few moments past and fellow crew members started to disperse from the room because it was time for them to return to their work. It was also Stiles’ time to go check the guidance systems. So any chance of talking about the kiss with Derek was out of the question, not that he was going to talk about it with him anyways. Stiles knew he would have to build up a lot of courage to talk about it with Derek.  _ Something that felt that right couldn’t have just meant nothing to him, right? _ Stiles thought to himself before saying his goodbyes to Derek and Scott. He gave Scott a glare at him for dropping that dare on Derek who Scott knew was awkward around people. Scott just smiled at Stiles as if to say ‘at least you two finally kissed’. Stiles wondered if it was the loneliness of space that was making Scott so interested in his love life, almost like the thrill of shipping two people together, or maybe Scott genuinely cared about Stiles and wanted him to find someone. Either way Scott had nothing but the purest intents of with the dare. He shoots Stiles a puppy dog face when Stiles’ glare didn’t fade.  _ I hate that I can’t stay mad at those eyes. They should be against the law. _


	8. Singularity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Derek talk about their feelings, and turbulence on the ship occurs and some casualties happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRRRRYYYYYY. I have been hella busy. This chapter is a little longer than some of the others though, so here yall go. Enjoy.

 

 

 

**SINGULARITY**

 

6 months into the trip and about half a month since Stiles and Derek shared their kiss. They had yet to talk about it. What they had managed to do was partially make things awkward between one another. Stiles would steal glances at Derek's lips and Derek would blush and turn his head away. Derek would stare at Stiles and Stiles would blush and turn his head away. The two of them clearly had chemistry, but neither of them wanted to take the first step. Neither of them were ready to address the kiss. That is until it started to bother Stiles. Stiles noticed how awkward things had gotten between the two of them. It wasn’t how he wanted to spend his time with Derek. He wanted to go back to the way it was before the kiss, or if feelings just happened to be admitted or shared, then maybe they could be friends and more. Stiles wasn’t going to get his hopes up though, he had been rejected too much to get his hopes up. He was going to force them to address it though. He was tired of the way Derek kept looking at him like he was guilty about the kiss or something. Stiles wanted to get it all out in the air and get Derek to share what he thought about the kiss. Then once he gauged what Derek’s response was, then he would share his own response. If Derek liked the kiss then Stiles considered telling Derek about his feelings, if Derek emphasized that it was just a dare then Stiles would go along with that and they would go back to being friends, and Stiles knew he would just have to deal with that. 

 

Derek’s thought on the kiss were just as frustrated as Stiles. Derek didn’t know how to bring up the kiss though, and he figured Stiles’ demeanor lately showed that he would probably talk about it soon enough. Derek thought Stiles couldn’t hold things in for too long. Eventually Stiles would have to talk about the kiss, especially when Derek noticed how  _ off _ their friendship had been lately. Derek didn’t know what he was going to say though. On the one hand the kiss they shared was like nothing Derek had ever felt before. He was sad to say that it didn’t even compare to Paige. The kiss awoke primal feelings Derek never knew he possessed. It awoke the wolf inside him and it howled and yipped in joy when Derek had sealed his lips upon Stiles’. It yelled ‘mate! mine! take the mine!’. The urge to protect was also heightened. Derek didn’t attribute it all to his wolf though, because he and his wolf were one, and what the wolf wanted was what Derek wanted. He wanted Stiles but he wasn’t really sure if Stiles felt the same, he had a feeling, but he truly couldn’t be sure without Stiles saying it himself. Derek knew he wanted Stiles but he was not going to start anything willingly unless Stiles was the one to say it. Maybe it was the fact that Derek couldn’t bring himself to indulge in a relationship with how the previous ones ended, maybe he was scared, but regardless he wanted the choice or verbal initiation of starting a relationship to be up to the other person. 

 

Stiles confronted Derek early in the morning as soon as they arrived in the plant room shortly after they greeted one another. “Hey. We need to talk dude. Since that game of Truth or Dare things have been.....not normal, between you and me. We need to talk about it. Maybe we could eat dinner in your room later? More private that way. Then maybe we can get things out on the table and stuff can go back not being awkward  _ and maybe we can become more than just friends _ . Stiles tried ignoring the hopeful voice in his head. He had trained himself time and time again to ignore it because he knew if he got his hopes up it would only end bad, it is what he conditioned himself to do to avoid being easily hurt. Derek just nodded at Stiles. Derek wanted to get this figured out just as much as Stiles. 

 

They worked mostly in silence for the remainder of the time working. It wasn’t that Stiles didn’t want to talk to Derek it was more so that he was stuck in his head. He was trying to come up with the right words to say to Derek. He was playing through both scenarios in his mind of what might happen. His mind was just wandering like his mind usually did, but today, because of the important conversation he was going to have later, it was wandering a lot more than usual. By the time lunch time came around they still hadn’t worked completely through the awkwardness they shared. Scott had noticed the way the two were acting around one another over the past couple days and had decided to intervene. It didn’t really help much though. Scott just tried to make conversation with the two of them and make opportunities for them to talk. That wasn’t the problem though. The problem was that every time they would make eye contact with one another their faces turned pink. Stiles would get too distracted to speak. It spoke volumes to Scott of just how intense the kiss must have been to have this effect on Stiles. Just how deeply rooted Stiles’ feelings must be with Derek for him to be this affected. Scott didn’t even think he had seen Stiles this head over heals for Lydia back in high school. Derek was the first one to leave the table and Stiles explained how they were going to talk things through later. He explained how he didn’t know what he was going to say. Scott could see the fear on his best friends face. Scott seen things going one of two ways, really good, or really bad. Scott prayed that it was the first one because he didn’t know if his best friend could handle another rejection. Scott just hoped Derek made the right decision. Scott hoped that he was right about Derek’s feelings for Stiles. 

 

Dinner came around the Stiles and Derek got their food and headed towards Derek’s room. They had the rest of the night off. They sat in silence for a while with just the sound of one another eating their meal. Stiles still hadn’t figured out just how to convey his feelings for Derek without coming on too strong. Stiles knew Derek’s past and how his previous relationships did not go well. The death of his first girlfriend Paige, the arson attempt with his 2nd girlfriend. Stiles wanted Derek to know he was serious if they were to enter a relationship. He wanted there to be trust, he wanted Derek to feel safe and Stiles wanted to reassure him that nothing would happen to him, he wouldn’t go anywhere. He wouldn’t die like Paige did. Of course Stiles knew he couldn’t promise it, because the probability of death in space was increased than of that on earth. Stiles could only offer that he would try. 

 

Stiles finally got the courage to speak a couple minutes after he had taken his last bite of dinner. “So......I guess we should talk about things....I’ll be honest. I have no idea where to start. And I assume I have to be the one to start the conversation because you won’t from what I’ve observed. So bear with me because I am about to lay out some serious word vomit. No particular order just whatever comes to mind that has to do with all of this. Okay?” Stiles asked Derek who also had just finished eating. Derek almost sighed in relief when Stiles explained that he was going to do the initial talking. 

 

After shifting in his seat nervously Stiles finally let out a breath and began to speak. “Okay I know this whole situation is really awkward, but first things first. Can we not have it be? No matter what can we agree to at least stay friends no matter what is said. I don’t know if I can go back to not talking to you especially how close we’ve gotten. What we’ve shared with one another, I can’t go back to not being just acquaintances. I care about you. That being said I want you to know I felt something. That kiss, while it was just a game, I felt something. I felt something to the point of where it was almost too intense. Please tell me you felt something from that kiss. Please tell me that this isn’t some one sided thing. You voluntarily kissed me for longer than required. Tell me I’m just not crazy and love sick. I have had feelings for you for a while but I was too scared to say anything” Stiles said kind of getting worked up towards the end. Derek could tell from his heart beat that he was getting more and more nervous. Derek’s suspicions were confirmed and Stiles seems pretty serious about the whole thing, and what made him feel more at ease was that Stiles wanted to remain friends even if they weren’t to become something more. It took a lot of pressure off Derek. But it was time for him to open his mouth and tell Stiles how he felt.  

 

Derek pondered for a couple minutes of what to say but decided to just be his usual blunt self and despite having underlying voices in his head telling him not to want Stiles as a romantic partner, he let himself want it, he wanted to try and move on and if anyone understood him enough to help him move on it was going to be Stiles. “I...I feel the same. I feel something for you. For a while now, but like you said. I am scared as well. I haven’t done  _ this _ in a long time and neither time has went well. We have gotten to be such good friends, in here, space of all places. Given how my last two relationships have went it's just hard. I am glad you mentioned staying friends because I don't think I could handle going back to being as silent as I was. I'm so grateful for our friendship. If you want I would like to try something. Being together. Maybe not tell anyone but Scott. On account of Nasa never really went over coworker relationships. That is....if you want to be in a relationship. But you’re asking me if I have feelings, and I do. Feelings I haven’t felt in a long time. Feelings so strong that they are making me go against all my fears of what I think might happen based on past experience” Derek said, surprised at his own words. 

 

It took a couple minutes for the information to soak into both of their minds. “I...I want to too. I’ll be honest though....You know. This is my first relationship I don’t know what I am doing. I can promise It won’t be like Kate. But I can’t promise anything about something like what happened to Paige. That is out of my control, but I will try to be careful. Would you be comfortable with that though? Us being...boyfriends. I also agree on keeping things a secret. I mean I am by no means in the closet, but for our jobs sake, at least until we return to earth we should keep things under wraps” Stiles explained. Derek tried to contain his nervousness and excitement. Derek’s wolf had been yipping in his mind at the confessions that had been put out in the open.  _ Mate Mate Mate! _ Derek would feel coming from his wolf. He hadn’t felt this since Paige. He was going to let himself have this. He was going to let himself start a relationship and hope nothing went wrong. “Okay let’s do this than” Derek says and he moves to bring Stiles into a hug. It was more so his instincts and his wolf doing it but he kind of liked how shocked Stiles was at Derek indulging in the human contact. 

 

Everything was going fine the rest of the night....Until it wasn’t. A couple hours had past since the two formed the fresh relationship and they were already indulging in the advantages of being in a relationship. They were cuddling on Derek’s bed. Then something wasn’t right. Derek was the first one to sense it. Small tremors were starting to pulsate through the body of the ship. Then small tremors turned into violent turbulence. Derek’s wolf started to scream within.  _ Protect Mate! Protect Mate! _ Derek did what he could. He clung to Stiles for dear life. He had lost a previous potential mate, he wasn’t going to lose this one without a fight. This relationship was too new for him to lose Stiles, and somehow he thought he could help by wrapping himself around Stiles in a protective cocoon. The turbulence only got more intense and Derek held onto Stiles as he reached over the bed to take the straps that were for emergencies to tether them to the bed. He latched the tethers and kept his grip on Stiles who looked rather scared. They didn’t know what was going on. 

 

The turbulence was still going on for a couple minutes before it got even worse. They didn’t know what it was....that is until a loud metal scraping sound could be heard through the ship. The two thought for sure something that hit the ship, but to their surprise they couldn’t see any depree outside of the ship through their port window. They sat almost helpless on Derek’s bed as the turbulence continued. A couple moments past is when they saw it. Is when the turbulence stopped all together at once and so did the metal screeching. Through the porthole of the window they could see what the source of the turbulence as well as the metal screeching had been. Two of the modules of the ship had somehow came to jenison from the main body of the ship. They watched in terror as the saw both modules be left behind as the ship continued on. Their terror only got worse as the they witnessed the two modules colliding with one another, a rather large explosion occurring between them. Stiles turned his head away from the port window and clung on tighter to Derek. 

 

When Derek deemed it safe enough to removed the safety straps he did. He had a duty as copilot to evaluate the damage that had occurred and what exactly had happened. That being said he wasn’t going to leave Stiles by himself yet, but he was going to get him onto the main body of the ship, the one part the obviously wasn’t ejectable. They got to the main part of the ship where some of the crew members had already gathered. They looked just as scared as Stiles and Derek. The other copilot was there making sure they were alright, and Frank was in the cockpit piloting the ship. Derek had yet to do a head count but one he started counting with his fingers Stiles noticed what Derek had also noticed. Scott wasn’t around. Before Derek could stop the man, Stiles bolted in the direction of the his and Stiles’ room. When he arrived there Scott was nowhere to be found. He began to panic as he went through room by room making his way through the station. He was close to a full on panic attack as he got to the module across from one of the ones that had jettisoned. 

 

He opened the door and saw Scott strapped into the seat on the far side of the room. He was obviously still shaken up and still trembling out of fear. Stiles ran over to the guy and unstrapped him. They clung tight to one another. “I thought I lost you” Stiles said tears running down his face of both relief and fear. A couple moments later Derek entered the room and Stiles got up and helped Scott up. Stiles latched onto Derek and hugged him. Stiles was still shaken up and clinging to his new boyfriend was helping. He considered telling Scott right then, but it wasn’t the time. “What caused this?” Scott asked kind of still freaked that he was so close to modules that got ejected from the ship. 

 

Derek already had an answer for that because of the code log in the ship's computer. One of the other coding masters of the ship that was in the main body of the ship had began to check what the problem was right away as soon as the turbulence had stopped. “A mistake is what happened. It cost him his life and Janets. Stuart one of the maintenance people to make sure things are alright with each module, well he was checking things and making sure there weren’t any errors in the code, but there were. His fix didn’t fix it though. It caused the two modules he was working on to do an emergency jettison. We lost two people today. The pilot wants us all on the main area of the ship until the rest of the module’s codes are checked to double check if Stuart's work was done right. He also wants to have a conversation with us about making sure we triple check work before submitting something like code into the system” Derek explained. 

 

Franks conversation went exactly as Stiles thought it was. Instead of Frank having any sense of sympathy for the loss of Janet and Stuart, he focused more on scolding the crew on making sure the crew wasn’t going to make a mistake like this again. It turns out one of the modules that was jettisoned contacted the long distance communication equipment. So now communication with earth came to a halt. They hoped that the remaining code signals had reached earth to convey that the module had been ejected and that the main module was still in tact and flying through space. Stiles hoped they wouldn’t release anything in the news that would scare his father. 

  
Their night was fairly busy being huddled in the main area of the ship while the main code master worked hard on making sure everything was correct. In a room still apart of the main part of the ship Stiles and Scott decided to take the opportunity to have a serious conversation while Derek took over for the other copilot. They talked about what would happen if one of them were to die. It was an intense conversation neither of them wanted to have, but they forced themselves. Both of them agreed that they would...they had to move on if one  another had died. They had to make it back to earth and tell their story. Make the other seem like a hero. Take care of the other other’s parent and make sure they didn’t drink themselves to death. It was a needed precaution and they both hugged it out when they were finished. To lighten the mood a little Stiles decided after all to tell Scott about Derek. He figured since the death and conversations about death had been going on, some talk about new stuff forming rather than ending was called for. “So Derek and I talked things out a couple hours before all of this happened. We decided to give it a shot. But don’t tell anyone” Stiles said. Scott smiled the best he could in this situation. “Happy for you bro. Bout time you two got your heads out of your ass. Now you can get something else in your-----” Scott said being cut off by Stiles’ punch to his arm. Scott let out a soft laugh, trying not to be too loud because the air on the ship was still stale with the loss of their crew members. They had to move on though. They all knew the dangers coming into this mission. Space is dangerous. Just how dangerous was uncertain, and they were unsure of what their remaining time in space had in store for them. 


	9. Solar Wind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorryyyyyyyy. I have been so busy with class, work and an upcoming con I am finishing cosplay for. 4 more chapters until an important very heart wrenching chapter. I just thought I would put warnings out there.

 

 

 

**SOLAR WIND**

 

8 months into their trip things had gotten slightly better from their initial day after the mistake of releasing the two modules that collided into one another. It took the crew a while for them to get in the habit of taking on slightly more work to pick up the slack from losing two crew members. One of the two modules lost were important in terms of communication. The module was meant for any possible alien communication that might be intercepted. The range of communication it held was also the way they stayed in range of earth. They had a shorter range means of communication, but it only worked about a third of the way out from earth. The alien communication module was meant to work all the way from mars. Communication with earth wasn’t possible, not until they got to Mars at least. They could use the Mars Rover to send a message home. It was the only way they could let Earth know the trip was still active. It was the only way Stiles and the rest of them could get a message to their parents that they were alright. 

 

Frank, the pilot, got more and more strict on the crew, which was justified considering wreckless coding mistakes resulted in the loss of two modules, one being the communication module and the other being a module that held a mars rover. More importantly they lost two crew members, who the pilot was supposed to keep safe. As much as an asshole as Frank was, and as little sympathy he showed, at the end of the day he was still going to do his job and make sure the remainder of his crew was safe. So, he made sure that everyone knew not to make any mistakes and to constantly check that they’re doing their work correctly. 

 

Stiles and Derek’s relationship, although it started literally with some turbulence, had started to slowly bloom. They were taking things at a fairly slow pace like they had agreed. Stiles was usually the one to initiate something like holding hands when they were alone in Derek’s room or in Stiles and Scott’s. There was the occasional time that Derek was the one to initiate things though, one of the more important things being their first ‘real’ kiss which happened about 7 and a half months into the trip. Stiles and Derek were not in the their usual work room, which they had seen slightly less of due to having to pick up extra slack. They made sure the plants still got the love they needed, but they also had other jobs to make sure they attended to. 

 

The door to the plant room closed and a couple seconds later when Stiles was sure no one but Derek was around, he planted a tender kiss on Derek’s lips. The electrifying sensation was something the two could never get past. It surprised them almost every time their lips met. Derek’s wolf went crazy every time Derek got to kiss his mate. As the relationship was going on and on Derek was becoming more and more confident that Stiles was the mate he was meant to be with. It was happening slow, but he was slowly starting to open up emotionally in terms of a relationship again. Stiles was slowly mending the scars left from his past, although they would never go away, the pain of paranoia of them would be lessened substantially. “Miss me?” Derek said with a grin. Stiles smiled back at Derek. “Of course. We haven’t been able to see each other as much due to....you know. I like making due with the time we do have though. Let's get to work shall we? These plants won’t grow themselves. Not like you make certain things grow by themselves.” Stiles says winking. Stiles didn’t mean anything by it, he wasn’t suggesting that Derek and himself do anything sexual, they weren’t ready for it, but Derek knew this was part of Stiles’ sense of humor and he accepted that. He knew when they were actually ready to have sex that Stiles would let him know seriously, not in some innuendo or joke. 

 

While working the two kept up conversation, talking about various things. They talked about books. They ended up on the topic of home. “S-So how do you think it's going to be when we finally get home? We’ll be kind of famous in the science world for being one of the few that has walked on another planet successfully.” Stiles said not bringing up the fact that they still had a while to go before they even arrived at Mars. He chose to ignore the fact that they could still be met with disaster before they even reached Mars. Stiles was optimistic about reaching the red planet, he had to be, he had to have confidence that he would make it back to Earth. Derek on the other hand was more or less a realist, he knew the dangers of space, hell, he had experienced what they could do, but he was determined to do everything in his power to keep himself and Stiles safe. It might be selfish, but Derek had gone through enough shit and this relationship was still new. Still fresh and had so far to go, and Derek wasn’t going to let it slip through his fingers. He would make sure Stiles’ safety was his priority. If keeping Stiles safe also involved keeping the crew safe, than that was just an added bonus. “I hope it's not too bad. I didn’t sign up to be star of the year. You of all people know I am not good with others. The paparazzi comes around I might rip their throat out... with my teeth.” Derek said more joking than serious, but he kind of meant it. He didn’t think he was all that equipped for the attention they would receive when they returned. 

 

Stiles looked at Derek like he was being serious about the whole ripping with teeth thing, but realized it was a joke. “Funny sourwolf. I’d suggest against that though, don’t want the public thinking you’ve went space mad right?” Stiles said, not even thinking about why he came up with the new nickname. Derek thought Stiles knew something at first, but realized it was just a nickname Stiles made, Stiles didn’t actually know about Derek and his wolfy tendencies. That being said only Stiles could call him sourwolf or Der. Anyone else would address him as Derek, besides his siblings who would call him embarrassing names. “Would be better than having to deal with paparazzi. A nice cozy padded room in a mental hospital. Ahhhh solitude.” Derek said jokingly, throwing a sly grin at Stiles. Stiles approached Derek and slapped his arm playfully. “Hey! Then I wouldn’t be able to be with you. I don’t think mental hospitals to conjugal visit. But seriously I would miss you, and those lips of yours.” Stiles said with a wink. Derek smiled warmly at Stiles and cupped Stiles’ chin and brought him in for a tender peck on the lips. 

 

Stiles never got tired of kissing Derek. It was his favorite thing to do, given there wasn’t much to do up in space anyways besides work. Slowly they were exhausting their games and activities to pass the time when they had nothing better to do. Stiles never had been a relationship before and frequently being able to kiss Derek when they had time was almost overwhelming to him and he took advantage of every moment of it. They weren’t ready for more considering the relationship was so new, but everything about the relationship was  _ right _ to Stiles. He crushed on Derek for more than half of the trip and now they were together. It made him happy. He was going to make sure they made it home safely so they could have an actual relationship and do more ‘coupley’ things. He thought about Derek meeting his father. How the Sheriff would probably have ‘a talk’ with Derek in the kitchen with his pistol laid in plain sight for Derek to see. 

 

Stiles and Derek spend more time alone working before they have to part ways for a couple hours before their scheduled meal in Stiles’ room. They planned a ‘date’ night. They had only a few from the beginning of their relationship until now. Stiles planned on borrowing Scott’s ipod because it was loading with tons of movies. Scott, the master of smuggling in contraband. Derek and Stiles parted ways eventually and Derek went to the cockpit and Stiles went to his other post that just happened to be with Scott. 

 

It was as if Scott knew whenever Derek and Stiles kissed and acted coupley because Scott could almost always tell by the look on Stiles’ face. Scott threw Stiles a sly grin when they were alone. Stiles knew what was coming. Scott had a way of somehow asking him questions that could embarrass the hell out of him, but he also couldn’t get mad at that puppy dog face. “So how are things with Derek? Did you join the light year high club? Please tell me you two didn’t fertilize the plants with your spe--- nevermind I don’t want to know.” Scott said laughing at Stiles. Stiles doubted Scott was actually interested in his sex life, but Stiles recalled a certain ex of Scott that Stiles always had to hear the dirty details from Scott. They only dated a brief period before the two decided it wasn’t meant to be. “Nah dude we’re taking it slow. We want this to work. Especially after the scare the night we got together we wanna make sure we do it right. Got a date later when Derek gets off his shift with captain dick for brains.” Stiles said nonchalantly working on whatever checks he had to do. Scott noted the way Stiles’ face light up when he mentioned the date with Derek. He could tell that Derek was making Stiles happy and it made him feel good. Stiles would often have a shield thrown up all the time and frequently not let anyone in. He was terrified of rejection, but now, now Scott could see the Stiles that wasn’t so  _ muted _ . It made him think that Derek was good for Stiles. 

Stiles finishes his shift with Scott and goes to the dining module to make some food for Derek and himself. When he got the food ready he was greeted by Derek who was about to get food himself and meet Stiles in his room, but Stiles had beaten him to it. So they start their movie and eat in silence, cuddled up on Stiles’ bed. The two decided on watching the Nightmare before Christmas, since it was one of Stiles’ favorites and Derek hadn’t seen it since he was younger. About halfway through the movie Scott waltzes in and takes a seat on his bed acting like seeing Stiles cuddled up to Derek was a natural thing. Scott explained he didn’t mind that they were doing couply stuff while he was around. It actually helped them in a way being able to do ‘pdfs’. It made them feel like their relationship wasn’t so isolated. 

 

Then it happened. Stiles found himself on the verge of a panic attack as a familiar turbulence shook threw the space crafts’ core. This time though it wasn’t any malfunction or mis code. Stiles, Derek and Scott, now all huddled together holding onto one another, could hear the alarms going off to indicate possible impact. They all looked out the porthole window to see a huge asteroid hurtling towards the ship. It’s pull no doubt causing turbulence. Stiles hides his face in Derek’s shirt as the asteroid hurdles in the direction of the ship. Scott closes his eyes and prepares for impact while Derek cannot take his eyes off of the asteroid.  _ This can’t be how it ended.  _ He thought to himself. His eyes flashed red as he the asteroid got dangerously close, but it in fact missed the ship by a mere couple of feet. Stiles clung onto Derek while Scott also held onto Stiles.

 

It wasn’t the manliest thing to do, but they weren’t keen on being hyper masculine. “Dudes that was way to close. Why didn’t we get warning sooner that that thing was hurdling towards us.” Scott said curiously. Stiles slowly regained his composure and had an answer for Scott’s question. “I’m not sure. It could be that the equipment for better warnings was on one of the lost modules, but it also could have been the asteroid itself. There is never a guarantee what an asteroid is made of, so depending on what it was made of, it could have possibly messed with the equipment. That being said I am going to have a shit ton more work to do. I am pretty sure the asteroid's gravity pulled us out of our predetermined course. The force of pull could have fried the navi system. I don’t think it did though. I have to go check them though. Surprised captain mcdick hasn’t summoned us to his throne room of douchebaggery. Come with me? I don’t think I can manage to walk steady on my own. Anxiety is still all over the place, and my hyperactiveness is totally getting worse as the minute passes.” Stiles said, looking between Derek and Scott who agree to accompany him to the proper place on the shift to check the equipment. 

  
It turns out the ship’s guidance system was compromised. Stiles punched the word compromised to emphasize that it wasn’t destroyed or fried. It was  _ compromised. _ That meant it could be fixed. That meant Stiles had a lot of work to do, but it wasn’t going to get done that ‘night’ because everyone even the pilot was exhausted from another scare and brush with death. Captain Frank and the other copilot would man the ship until morning, taking turns sleeping, and having manual control of the ship rather than the pre existing autopilot that had them on a perfect course to the red planet. Everyone was in such a state of fear they didn’t notice that Stiles slipped into Derek’s room. Behind closed doors Stiles was shaking in Derek’s arms, the weight of the near death experience getting to him yet again, but Stiles slowly calmed as he laid in his arms. Arms warm and protective, gaze so piercing Stiles thought that Derek could have leaped out of the ship and punched the asteroid to pieces. That being said, Stiles says his goodnights to Derek and they fall asleep together, spooning. Stiles thinking about Derek, trying to keep his mind of the underlying anxiety, and Derek, thinking about Stiles, his  _ mate _ . How in the moment when the asteroid was approaching he was ready to defend his mate in any way he could, even if he had to fight the dangers of space. Stiles falls asleep first with small snores, while Derek follows soon after being lulled by the soft breathing coming from his mate. 


	10. Gravitation Constant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Scott have to work on the ship yet again, and the Pilot gets snippy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M ALIVE!  
> So sorry I haven't been able to update in forever, but taking 16 credits and working will do that. The semester is over now so I will have more free time to write and finish this story. The next chapter is a christmas themed chapter, and then the chapter after that there is a warning for major character death. 
> 
> Also I plan to overhaul a couple of my fics formats. I've gotten suggestions that people want more breaks in paragraphs where there is a change of speaker. It makes sense and I wanted to do that with this story, but my writing process just blurts out the story in the paragraph form that exists now, but I plan on changing this story, and a couple others to make them a little more reader friendly. 
> 
> So the next update won't be until I finish going through and formatting those stories, which shouldn't be too long, because I don't have too many stories out there.

 

 

**GRAVITATIONAL CONSTANT**

 

Stiles awoke to the sound of Derek growling in his sleep. He wondered what Derek was possibly dreaming about to be growling in his sleep. Stiles thinks it's kind of cute though. He stares at Derek for he doesn’t even know how long until Derek finally starts stirring awake. Derek possessively wraps his arms around Stiles and nuzzles his face into the mole spackled neck before him.  “Good Space Morning Der.” Stiles says, moving so he can look Derek in the eyes. “Morning” Derek says, planting a kiss to Stiles’ cheek. “Gonna be a big day again for me and Scott. You too probably, since you’ll probably insist on being the one to babysit me and Scott. “What do you mean?” Derek said. Stiles knew last night what needed to be done to the ship to reestablish the trajectory instruments. The parts were fried and needed replacing. It was going to be Stiles’ second time chancing fate by scaling the side of the spaceship to replace parts. “The guidance and trajectory parts are fried. Gonna have to replace them sooner rather than later. If we don’t, we might not be able to maneuver other obstacles and also its needed for proper landing. So me and Scott are probably going to have to go out there again to repair it. Gonna go wake up Scott so we can get this over with. I just want to get it done, the sooner I have less anxiety knowing that the ship has one less thing wrong with it the better. Now come on. I wanna get to Frank before he can even find someone to summon us” Stiles said.

 

Derek was silent for a couple moments because he just found out Stiles, _his mate_ , had to risk his life yet again to fix some parts on the ship and there was essentially nothing he could do but listen to him and Scott as the scaled the side of the ship. It angered him. He was an alpha and it infuriated him that he had stand by while Stiles, Stiles whom he should be protecting, risked his life. Derek figured it was better than nothing to be the one in the air lock. In the event something did happen he knew he could exit the airlock regardless of protocol. He had faith in Stiles, but this was space, there was no guarantees that he could stay safe. “Okay. Just promise me you’ll stay safe. Or try to stay safe” Derek says, yet again pulling Stiles even closer. Stiles lets out a muffled ‘promise’ and the two get up and change. Stiles had stashed beforehand some of his clothes in Derek’s room just in case.

 

When Stiles and Derek entered Scott and Stiles’ room Scott is already dressed and ready to go. Stiles figures he knew what was wrong with the ship. Some people may think Scott is kind of out of it a lot of the time but Stiles knows Scott is smart when he wants to be, hell, he's with him among the few that have ventured to space, he has to be at least a little smart. “Hey buddy. We gonna go tell Frank we have to go outside to fix things? He'll probably be kinda pissy that he had to stay up around the cockpit to make sure the ship was traveling the correct way” Scott says getting up and heading towards the door. Stiles nods and the 3 of them head towards the cockpit to inform Frank of the situation.

 

Scott was right about Frank being pissy. It didn’t take Derek’s wolf senses to pick up on the feeling of annoyance in the cockpit as the 3 enter the room. Upon entry Frank let out an annoyed sound like they should have already been in there. “Took you long enough, glad you could get beauty sleep while I was stuck piloting this shit show all night. You know what you have to fix don’t you? While you’re at it try to see if you can boost signal for our communications to see if we can reestablish contact with earth. Don’t fuck up either. I really don’t want to have to worry about anymore casualties. Puts more pressure on me on a captain and makes me look bad” Frank said, and the three just rolled their eyes. They kind of found it disrespectful to treat the previous deaths on the ship like it was something of in inconvenience to him rather than a loss. The three kind of just dismissed themselves and headed towards the airlock. Derek tries not to get nervous, but again this was a risk for his mate and his mate’s best friend. He can only hope it goes well.

 

The ship comes to a drift in space as Frank had cut the thrusters. Stiles and Scott had gathered the parts they needed and started to gear up. Derek was doing checks on the airlock before suiting up himself. When everything was suited up Derek decided to let out words of encouragement. “You two got this okay? You’ve fixed the ship before and I know if anyone can do it again, it’s you two” Derek said, bringing Stiles into a hug. Stiles returned the hug and they just stayed like that for a couple moments weary to break apart. “Okay Der, we gotta get to work or Frank might come down here himself and complain us to death” Stiles said before heading towards the airlock doors.

 

Derek engaged the pressure equalizer and the oxygen began to deplete in the room. The 3 already had their tanks on and Stiles and Scott were ready to scale the ship. Derek took his spot next to the tether just in case he needed to reel them in. Stiles and Scott started to scale the ship to the place where they needed to replace parts and fix others.

 

Stiles slowly got through the process with him removing the parts and handing them off to Scott. The Scott would hand him the new part and they'd hook it up. Stiles would test to make sure the part was working on his check device, then they'd move onto the next. As the continued through the process Derek would check in every so often making sure everything was alright and having them pause to check their oxygen levels. Derek probably checked more often than he should have, but every extra moment Stiles was out there, it made him more anxious, and the silence would kill him, so he had to ask for his own sanity. “How you guys doing out there?” Derek asked for the third time. “Were good. About three fourths of the way done. Pretty sure I won’t be able to boost the communications signal. I could boost it a little, but we’re still too far out. We had the entire big antenna on that module we lost, now we're down to a medium sized one that was never meant for long range. Everything else is going well though. Oxygen levels are still manageable too” Stiles said as he worked at the same time.

 

They finish soon after this and Stiles ends up boosting the antenna’s range even though it won’t reach earth from their position. Stiles still does it because it will still make it faster for them to get back in touch with earth letting them know they’re alright on their ride back. Scott and Stiles got into the airlock with about 15% oxygen to spare. Derek hit the door and started the pressure balancing process. When the pressure was balanced they took off their suits and Stiles ran to Derek and grasped onto him. Scott just kind of stood there and gave them a funny look. “And you said I would be the one flaunting the relationships in your face. Get a room..........On second thought, your room is next to mine and i’d rather not hear you two being...intimate, so don’t get a room please. I want my hearing intact” Scott said and cringed a little at the end.

 

The 3 return to the cockpit to inform Frank that the job was complete and he could refire the thrusters, but before any of them could get a word out Frank was the first to talk. “Why are you back in here and the comm still isn’t working? I told you to boost the signal” Frank said in an annoyed tone. He was staring right at Stiles. Stiles stepped forward to defend himself. “I boosted it as much as I could with the equipment we had available” Stiles said sternly. Frank didn’t look impressed. “I thought you were supposed to be good at your job? Obviously NASA didn’t know what the hell they were choosing when they chose your sorry ass” Frank said, purposely trying to bring Stiles down. Derek and Scott both moved up to Stiles, getting mad, Derek going as far to growl at Frank. Derek was about to approach Frank and get right in his face, but Stiles held out an arm to stop him. Stiles was going to defend himself. “Look here Frank. I worked my ass off to get here. I should be the one to ask that question, how you got here. Someone so bitter. WE LOST ENTIRE MODULES AND LIVES. It's a miracle the ship is still running and all that seems to matter to you is inconveniences for YOU. I can’t get in contact with my family. So believe me, if I could have boosted the signal, I would have. Now if you have anymore complains for me please relay them to my secretary. The secretary that lives shoved up your ass next to the stick you always seem to have up there as well. I am going to do my rounds” Stiles said before storming out of the room.

 

Derek could see the pink of Stiles’ skin from how he got mad, and he would have to save the thoughts of other ways Derek could get Stiles’ skin to flush for later because Derek was pissed at Frank for even trying to question Stiles, or even Scott for risking their lives to go out and fix the ship. Derek gives Frank a look and tells him he’ll be back to take over with the other copilot. That Frank could final get his much needed rest. The way Derek said it though was by no means nice. His voice had a scary tone and Frank kind of flinched when Derek told him. Scott didn’t seem to be as angry as Derek, but he was still angry. He didn’t want to cause any conflict though, so he let Derek say what he was going to say and went to go about his work. Derek went to find Stiles, who was probably cooling off from going off on Frank. He finds him in Derek’s room, on the bed staring at the ceiling.

  
As soon as the door closes Derek’s lips are on Stiles’. Derek was trying to take Stiles’ mind off of Frank and give some much needed affection. Stiles risked his life again and Derek needed to show Stiles how much he cared, how much he was worried about him. The affection time doesn’t last for long though. As much as Derek hates to break away from Stiles, he knows the asshole Frank does need rest. Derek likes the idea of him being out of the way as well. Derek thinks that Derek and the copilot could manage the ship better than Frank had. Stiles held onto Derek, reluctant to let go, but he did. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back later. Much needed cuddles. Now go and get to work taking care of our plants. We haven’t done our daily watering yet” Derek said, finally breaking away from Stiles. Stiles just smiled at Derek. “I’ll make sure to play them one of your Black Keys songs. They'll all start turning black and smoking cigarettes in no time” Stiles said before strolling off in the opposite direction as Derek.


	11. Nebula

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles, Derek, and Scott spend Christmas as they roar through space towards the red planet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG I have finally got the willpower to continue this story. Warning next chapter for major character death.
> 
> Not BETA'D

 

 

 

**NEBULA**

 

It was 9 months into their trip when with all of the misfortune they had come across was momentarily ignored to try to have a decent holiday. It was Christmas Eve. Stiles and Derek were in their plant room waiting to get off of work so they could celebrate with Scott. The McCall boy had finished his work prior in the day and was was making some crude...innovative decorations for his and Stiles’ bunk.

 

For Scott christmas was always a big deal and  a happy time of year. Even after his father left, his mom made up for that gap. Around christmas time was when his mom would be home more often, that is partially the reason she would always be working during the regular time of year. To compensate for trying to be home more for christmas. It was full of joy and Melissa always got Scott what she could afford at the time.

 

For Stiles Christmas was a different story. It was one of loneliness. Stiles’ dad tried to be home for the holidays when he could but most of the time he found himself taking shifts. Stiles and his father rarely would celebrate Christmas ever since Claudia died and the few times they tried to celebrate it like they used it, it didn’t feel the same. This year though, being away from his father not knowing if he’d ever make it back home, Stiles found himself wanting to celebrate more than ever.

 

His drive to celebrate the holiday even though being a long way away from home, he still found the time to start the seedling of a small pine tree. That is also the reason why he stashed away one of the bulbs he had made when he was a kid. Him and his mom had sat at a table and decorated clear blank bulbs. Stiles hid it within his clothes in a small pouch that was wrapped in tons of cushioning to keep the bulb from breaking.

 

Now that Stiles had thought about it, he and Scott had actually smuggled in way more than they thought they’d be able to smuggle. When it came break time for Derek and Stiles, Stiles took a moment to tell Derek to go ahead and get food first, that he needed to use the restroom, but in reality he was taking this time to move his presents and the tree to his bunk without being detected.

 

Scott would likely be in commons waiting for Stiles and Derek so Stiles could easily avoid both of them. Stiles maneuvered both of the presents and the small baby tree in his arms and quickly made his way to his bunk. Stiles entered his bunk and smiled at Scotts makeshift decorations. He sat the tree on the window port ledge and sat the presents on the floor. They were wrapped in regular paper.

 

Stiles didn’t want it to look like he was gone for too long so he hurried back to the commons and met with Scott and Derek like he wasn’t up to anything. They ate happily and made small talk before it was time for them to return to work. Scott accompanied them. He wasn’t really going to work, but he was a pleasant presence in the room to make the time go by faster.

 

Scott helps the time go by way faster than they thought. Although that came at the expense of some of the work progression, but it was a holiday and it was only data on plants, so Stiles didn’t think it was a big deal.

 

The 3 headed towards the room. When they got there Derek and Scott both smirked at the room. Derek had always kind of dreaded Christmas because it meant social interaction with even more of his family than he already had to deal with. This year though, it was going to be special because it was just him, Scott, and Stiles. He was getting spend Christmas with his mate. It made him feel a warm feeling he hadn’t felt for the holiday in years.

 

The 3 passed some time by playing various word games and occasionally taking turns on Scott’s 4DS. It was a nice calm and fun time compared to their past couple months of stress and loss. It was comforting to the 3 of them. For the first time in a while they didn’t feel like they were fighting to stay alive. They didn’t feel like they had to stay constantly alert.

 

A little alarm went off on Stiles’ ipod when the clock finally hit midnight. Indicating that it was Christmas day. They were all kind of excited to see what one another had come up for presents for one another. On a ship millions of miles away from earth, one had to get creative if they wanted to make something to give to someone as a present. Stiles considered himself lucky he was blessed with his artistic abilities.

 

“Go ahead dude, open it.” Stiles said to Scott as Scott picked up the piece of paper that was folded like an envelope and read ‘To: Scott’ ‘From: Stiles’. Scott opened the envelope and pulled out another sheet of paper. His face lit up and he smiled as he saw the subject of the paper.

 

On the paper was a pencil drawing of Allison Argent. The love of Scott’s life, or he hoped she would be when he could get back home and finally ask her out. Scott thought that Stiles must have taken his ipod and found the picture he kept of her and drew it off of that for reference.

 

“Omg dude this is amazing! Looks just like her!” Scott said lightly brushing his hand at the face on the paper, making sure to do it gently so as not to disturb the graphite on the paper.

 

Stiles then turned to Derek. Who was now opening his present. When he opened it he smiled. It was a portrait of Derek and Stiles together. Stiles had plotted making this a while ago and strategically said he wanted a photo of him and Derek on his ipod for a background, which was true, but his other motive was to have the perfect reference photo to use to draw up this present in the little free time they had. It was even harder to do it in secrecy, since he had little alone time. So he didn’t mind if he got made fun of for being in the bathroom too long.

 

Derek looked at the paper. It was perfect. “Thank you Stiles. Its perfect.” Derek said reaching over and pulling him into a big hug.

 

“No problem big guy. Could you maybe let go a little, I don’t know if you knew, but you have big sexy muscles and you’re kinda crushing me with them.” Stiles said laughing. Scott made a face as if to say ‘get a room’.

 

Now it came time for the other two to give out their presents. Scott gave a piece of paper to Derek first. The first one he gave to Derek turned out to be a prank present. The prank was more so on Stiles, but nonetheless it still made Derek’s cheeks turn slightly pink. The paper read “I Scott McCall formally agree to give away my brother Stiles Stilinski for holy matrimony to Derek Hale. They shall be wed upon return to planet earth.” Stiles reached over and hit Scotts arm when he finished reading the paper.

 

Scott then gave Derek his actual present which was a wolf figurine he had tried to make out of scrap pieces of metal. Derek figured it was because he had mentioned once that his favorite animal was a wolf.

  
Scott’s gift to Stiles was also a wolf. Stiles had admitted to Derek that he also was really fond of the animal. Then Scott told them to hand them over and he pushed the two figurines against each other and they meshed together in a pose. They fit together like a glove.

 

Now came time for Derek to give out his gifts. Derek didn’t know if either of them would like the stories, but he wrote them anyways. He was really fond of writing and he figured writing them something would be a nice sentimental gift. Scott’s writing gift was a story about a prince and princess from different lands. A sort of forbidden love story. The prince’s name was Scott and the princesses’ name was Allison. Derek knew it was probably cheesy but he didn’t care, and neither did Scott apparently as he read through some of it.   
  
“Thanks man. This looks like it will be a good read. Now hopefully when I get back to earth I can actually make some of this stuff happen.” Scott said with a laugh.

 

Now was the time for Derek to give Stiles his present, and it was one of his longer writings he had created. Stiles skimmed some of it and realized it was Star Wars fanfiction written with Derek, Scott, and Stiles written in as some of the main characters in Derek’s new made up storyline for the Star Wars Universe. It made Stiles beam and he couldn’t wait to see what Derek had written, what adventures he had them take together.

 

“Thank you sourwolf!” Stiles said reaching over and hugging Derek. For it just being the three of them, Christmas actually turned out to be pretty good. They spent the next day playing games, working a little, and dramatically reading Derek’s fanfiction, occasionally trying to even act out some of the things Derek had written. It was a nice break from all the stress, but deep down the 3 couldn’t help but feel like it was calm before the storm.


	12. Supermassive Black Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A major problem arises and Stiles and Scott have to yet again go and fix the ship. This time though, things take a turn for the worst and Derek has to intervene.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get out your boxes of tissues because hella warnings for MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH up in here. 
> 
> Not BETA'D

 

 

 

**SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE  
**

1 and a half years had past and since their initial departure from earth. So far nothing had plagued the ship since that last time it had been affected by that asteroid. In that time Stiles and Derek’s  relationship only solidified more. Scott and Derek had gotten to know one another more. The traveling though had rendered everyone stir crazy. Frank was ready to arrive at the red planet and begin barking orders of how to go about habiting it and who was to go on what exploring mission. Even with the tension between Frank and the rest of the crew, things were going good, until it wasn’t 

 

As if their fate wasn’t tested the last time with an asteroid, space debris made it’s way through the ship's faulty detection system.  It wasn’t an immediately a deadly hit, but it was a hit that would turn deadly. It bumped the ship off course and hit into one of the thrusters, not breaking it, but stunting its output. It was repairable, but it would take more than just Scott and Stiles this time to fix it. 

 

Upon the debris impact with the ship Stiles and Derek awoke to the too familiar feeling of intense turbulence. They didn’t have time to panic before the turbulence just stopped. The two clung to each other for a couple moments before getting up and going to check on everyone.    
Scott was already at their door as soon as they were about to exit it. “Are you guys alright?” Scott said worried. Stiles and Derek let him know they were alright and they proceeded to check around the ship to see what had happened. No damage to the interior was evident, and every crew member was alright and unharmed. 

 

All of the crew members gathered around the cockpit. Frank came out of the cockpit with an look of annoyance on his face. “So that debris bumped us out of our original path, which is easily correctable because that equipment is still intact, but that equipment is essentially useless with the damage that did occur. The debris also hit into one of the top left thrusters and now it's outputting half of its power. That means no matter what way we go, we’re going to be drifting more to the right because we have a lacking thruster. I believe it is fixable, that it just bent the thrusters fuel line and it is preventing the correct amount of fuel from reaching the thruster. There was also some surface damage to some of the panels that could cause problems at a later time so we will need to send out a bigger crew than last time.  We are so close to the planet, we can’t afford to have anymore mistakes or mishaps if we want to be able to explore the planet. So Stilinski, McCall, you and the 3 others will go out to fix the ship. The rest of you will man the instruments to make sure everything remains stable and we can warn them if they need to come in. Emanuel you’ll be in outside the airlock manning the coms instead of in the cockpit with me. I have already shut down the thrusters so they can cool before going to fix them. It won’t take too long though so I suggest you all go suit up and prepare. I’d like to get this ship back on track, I don’t have all day to wait. Stilinski don’t fuck this up okay?” Frank ended with, getting a glare from Derek. 

 

They were put yet again in this position and Derek was pissed at the world about it. He was to be useless yet again. He would have to stand by while his boyfriend and a friend go out into the vacuum of space to fix the ship. Regardless of his feelings, they did have to fix the ship or they would surely never reach the red planet. Derek did promise himself one thing though, if Stiles was in danger this time around, he would gladly break the rule and go out to save him. In the little time they had leading up to the mission to repair the ship, Stiles and Derek got ready in private, giving much needed kisses and hugs. Stiles didn’t look as excited anymore as he was the other times he went out to repair the ship. Derek hugged him and told him it would be okay, but Stiles knew he was pressing his luck, going out into space for the 3rd time. 

 

They joined the other crew members assigned to the mission in the air lock. Soon they would have the go ahead that the thrusters were cool enough to work on and they would have to leave the safety of the air lock. Stiles took these last few moments to give Derek and Scott a hug. It was a gesture of good luck, but Stiles also meant it as a gesture of goodbye, just in case something happened to one of them. 

 

Soon after that Frank's voice came over the comms. “The thrusters are cool enough, get your asses out there and get to work” Frank said, and the crew members let out a sound of annoyance. None of them particularly liked the captain, but now the time was here for them to go out and fix the ship. Stiles gave Derek one last hug before inserting the air tether to him. Once everyone was tethered and had their suits on and ready to go, Derek hesitantly hit the airlock release button and they were now faced with the vacuum of space. Stiles and Scott were the ones who would have to go to fix the thrusters of the ship while the other members would be fixing the damage to the rest of the ship. 

 

Stiles and Scott made their way to the back of the ship to begin their repairs while the other 3 members were scattered around the ship’s surface fixing damage. For about half of the repairs everything was going alright, nothing bad was happening. Scott and Stiles had almost manipulated the fuel line free from where it was pinched. It would have a little more work to complete it though, but that’s when the first one hits. A piece of small space debris smacks into the ship leaving a small dent, harmless really, but this was the start of a chain reaction. More small debris, likely from the same debris cluster that initially hit the ship began to hit the ship. They were harmless enough, until they weren’t harmless. A piece of debris smacks into the repair crew’s main tether that they all were tethered to. So now they were all essentially relying on holding onto the side of the ship 

 

“Stiles?! Are you alright? Everyone else? Respond, repeat, respond, the main tether is broken. You are now all free floating and running on the air within your air tanks. I suggest you finish what you’re doing and hightail it back here” Derek said worried. Stiles was the first to respond, letting him know that he was alright, Scott followed, and so did the rest of the crew members out there letting Derek know that they had realized they’d become untethered. Stiles and Scott were almost done and almost ready to return to the airlock, but just before then a larger size of debris then the ones that had been hitting the ship struck. It hit right next to one of the other crew members, and the shockwave sent him drifting, along with another crew member working nearby. “NOO!” Derek yells. As he can hear them screaming as the start drifting further from the ship, with no way of making it back. They would have to sit there and listen to them scream for their lives. There was nothing they could do though. With the ship not moving and their tethers cut, there was no way of retrieving them. They would have to listen to him as they slowly ran out of oxygen. 

 

Derek felt helpless as he heard his fellow crew members drifting to their demise. He could only hope the same wouldn’t happen to Stiles or Scott. But it seemed they were heading towards more debris. He could only hope the remaining 3 would finish and return to the airlock and they could fire up the thrusters and get out of the debris field. Why Frank didn’t realize they were heading towards the field of debris, Derek doesn’t know, but this was on Frank for not checking this before hand. 

 

Moments pass and Stiles and Scott let Derek know they finished. Not cheering on account of their fellow members dying, but they said it with conviction, an attitude conveying that they needed to get out of this field of debris ASAP. 

 

It gave Derek a sense of relief that at least Stiles and Scott were about to be safe, but all that changed with the next thing Stiles said. “Heading back Derek. It will take a little longer. Since we got to use our magnets to scale the ship to reach.... PSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH” Stiles said before a loud noise came over the comms coming from Stiles’ end. “Stiles!?” Derek yelled into the coms. All hell broke loose after that. The other remaining crew member met his doom as a big piece of debris smacked into one of the crew members living module. He died on impact and the ship had a huge gash from where it hit. The ship was forced into an immediate release of that damaged module. Then the cockpit’s window got hit with a piece large enough to blow it out and frank flew out into space, dead. That made another emergency protocol go into effect as well. A new windshield had rose up behind where the old one was. Derek was preparing to go out and help when Scott came over the comm. 

 

Derek continued to get ready regardless. Removing the now useless main tether with his own, to make it easier to return, also taking the retract button with him. “Derek! Stiles’ air pack has been punctured by some debris. I’m going to conn.... CLINK” Scott said as a piece of debris hit into his helmet. Stiles was losing air fast and now Scott was losing air. Stiles used some of his remaining air to comm to Scott. “N--no Sc--Scott. Don’t” He was crying. He could see the big crack in Scott’s helmet. Slowly leaking air, but not yet bad enough to suck all the air out of his body yet. The comm came alive again with Scott’s voice.  He didn’t have much time before the crack would spread and kill him. “I love you bro. I told you, I’d gladly give my life for you. Just don’t forget me” Scott said using the remainder of his time to remove his oxygen tube from his pack to Stiles’. Scott’s helmet spidered out and shattered apart. Any remaining breath Scott had in his body was suddenly sucked violently out. Scott McCall was now dead. Stiles wouldn’t be far behind, Scott may have tethered him to his oxygen tank, but he was already almost out of oxygen before Scott connected him. Stiles passes out from oxygen starvation. 

 

Derek had been listening this entire time and was making his way to them. Rushing as fast as he could. He could see them from where they were. Scott’s suit was hooked onto the magnet that was on the ship, he could see that Scott’s helmet was broke and he was dead. Derek could hear a small heartbeat over the comm, but it was slowing. Derek got to that side of the ship in record time and grabbed onto Stiles, also unhooking Scott so he could get them to the airlock. Derek was frantic, one of his close friends was dead, and now his mate was dying. 

 

He made it to the airlock with Stiles with Scott’s body attached. Derek immediately hit the airlock button. Air began to fill the room, but even that didn’t help Stiles’ heartbeat. It was slowing, he was  _ dying _ . Derek’s wolf was howling in his head. Derek didn’t have any other choice. He quickly clawed off Stiles’ space suit, not caring how much it was worth and took his helmet off. He then dragged Stiles out of the suit and immediately sunk his teeth into the junction of Stiles’ neck, Derek’s eyes glowing red. Derek was desperate. He was panicking and losing two people he cared about so even though he knew it was pointless he tried to bite Scott, but he was already gone. The pressure difference too great when his helmet shattered. He could taste the death on his teeth after he bit him, it almost made him gag, but he wasn’t going to because Stiles still had a chance he he needed him. 

 

Derek was crying at Stiles’ body, not knowing if the bite would help or if Stiles was beyond the point of saving. He knew that he had to up their chances of living though so he commed to Emmanuel “Emmanuel are you there” Derek said in a frantic voice. “Yes Derek. We’re down a module and the cockpit also got struck and ejected Frank into space. The cockpit has been refilled with air though when the security protocol went through. What should we do? You were next ranking. You’re the captain now” Emmanuel said, not knowing what to say. 

 

Derek thought about leaving Stiles, but he couldn’t, but he had to do something, so he decided to make his first command as a captain. “Emmanuel ignite the thrusters and get us out of this field. Grab someone else to help you pilot. I have to help Stiles” Derek said getting a ‘yes captain’ response from Emmanuel. Derek felt bad about leaving Scott’s body in the airlock, but he wanted to get Stiles somewhere comfortable, to give the bite as much of a chance as possible to save his mate, and being around a dead body might just affect the bite taking if surrounded by death. 

 

Derek placed Stiles on his bed. The small heartbeat was still there but there was no change in it. Derek felt as the thrusters ignited and they began to move. Emmanuel had started their journey again, quickly steering them out of the field of debris. Derek was relieved for that, but at the same time he was panicking as Stiles’ heartbeat began to slow again. Then it just stopped. A howl was at the tip of Derek’s lips. His mate was dead. Another person he let in and loved, dead. Just like Paige. He couldn’t help but think bad thoughts while tears streamed down his face.  _ If only I was a better alpha. If only i’d went to help them sooner.  _ “Stiles...I’m so sorry” Derek said on the verge of sobbing. Then a miracle happened. Stiles’ body jolted up, golden eyes beaming, heart roaring to life. Stiles was alive. Derek let out a sigh of relief as he could clearly hear Stiles’ heartbeat, but his body collapsed back down with the adrenaline leaving his body. Derek knew he was likely exhausted and needed to rest for a couple hours before he could be conscious again. 

 

As much as Derek didn’t want to leave Stiles alone, he knew he needed to address Scott’s body and his new role as captain. Derek decided to store Scott in one of the freezers to try and preserve his body until they reached the red planet. The freezers got very cold and would help slow the decay. Derek knew Stiles would want to say goodbye to his best friend. He also would have to help Stiles now that he was a turned werewolf. Derek was also unsure how Stiles would react to werewolf-dom, especially if they were far away from the moon and approaching 2 new moons of Mars. Derek returns to Stiles soon after he took care of things. “We have to stay strong Stiles. We have to make it. This mission can’t be in vain for everyone that gave their lives. I love you” Derek said, placing a kiss on Stiles’ head. His eyes still red from crying over Stiles and Scott. 


End file.
